ronis

Latvian
Ronis

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *ruon-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *rew-, *row- (“to run, to rush, to hurry”) with an extra n. The meaning evolution was probably: “run, hurry (together)” > “to be in a group, herd”, “to be fecund, to be fertile, to rut; to be cheerful, neat” > “neat, cheerful, fertile animal living in groups” > “seal.” Cognates include Lithuanian rúonis.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [ɾūōnis]

Noun

ronis m (2nd declension)

  1. seal (several species of mammals of the family Phocidae)
    roņu dzimte – the seal family (= Phocidae)
    roņu tauki – seal fat
    roņu mednieks – seal hunter
    pelēkais ronis – gray seal
    roņi parasti turas baros – seals usually stay in groups
    Ieva peldēja slikti, bet es ūdenī jutos kā ronis – Ieva swam badly, but I felt like a seal in water

Declension
Declension of ronis (2nd declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) ronis roņi
accusative (akuzatīvs) roni roņus
genitive (ģenitīvs) roņa roņu
dative (datīvs) ronim roņiem
instrumental (instrumentālis) roni roņiem
locative (lokatīvs) ronī roņos
vocative (vokatīvs) roni roņi

Derived terms

References
  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “ronis”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.