balts

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See also: Balts

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from German Balz.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bɑlts/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: balts
  • Rhymes: -ɑlts

Noun

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balts m (uncountable)

  1. courtship display (especially by birds)
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Latvian

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Etymology 1

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From an unattested verb *balt (to become white) (of which balts originally was the past participle form; compare Lithuanian bálti, and Latvian 17th-century derived verb baltīt (to make, paint something white), later replaced by other verbs, derived from balts: from Proto-Baltic *bal-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰol- (shiny, white). Cognates include Lithuanian báltas, Sudovian bałtas. In several Indo-European languages, reflexes of the stem *bʰel-, *bʰol- are often found in words relating to water or humid places, probably due to their shiny, reflective surfaces: Illyrian *balta (“marsh, swamp”), Albanian baltë (mud, sludge, swamp), Proto-Slavic *bolto (swamp, lake) (Old Church Slavonic блато (blato, lake), Russian болото (boloto, marsh, swamp) (dialectal “puddle, lake”), Czech bláto (mud; pl. swamp), Polish błoto (mud, swamp)). This usage is also attested in Baltic languages, as in, e.g., Old Prussian placename Namuynbalt (swamp). It left also traces in Latvian, in the names of lakes or swamps (Baltenis, Baltiņa purvs), and is a possible source of the word balti (Balts, Baltic).[1]

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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Balts

balts (definite baltais, comparative baltāks, superlative visbaltākais, adverb balti)

  1. white (having the color of, e.g., snow or milk)
    balts papīrswhite paper
    balts kā sniegs, krīts, piens, kaulswhite as snow, chalk, milk, bone
    dzīvnieks ar baltu spalvuan animal with white fur, feathers
    baltais zaķiswhite hare
    nokrāsot durvis baltasto paint the door white
    balta kafijawhite coffee (i.e., with milk or cream)
    Baltais namsthe (American) White House
    baltais karogswhite flag (= symbol of peace, truce)
  2. white (light, not dark; without color; gray)
    baltās naktiswhite nights (polar nights in summer, without darkness)
    baltie asinsķermenīšiwhite (blood) cells
    baltais vīnswhite wine
    balta bārdawhite beard
    galva balta kā ābelehead white as an apple tree (= gray hair)
  3. white (a member of the Caucasian race)
    baltā rasewhite (= Caucasian) race
    baltie kolonizatoriwhite colonizers, settlers
  4. (usually clothes) clean
    uzvilkt sestdienā baltu veļuto wear white linen (= clean clothes) on Saturday
  5. (Russian civil war) counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
    balto armija, balto karaspēksthe white army, white troops
    balto uzbrukumsa white attack
Declension
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Antonyms
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Derived terms
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See also
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Colors in Latvian · krāsas (layout · text)
     balts      pelēks      melns
             sarkans, sārts              oranžs; brūns              dzeltens
                          zaļš             
             zilzaļš, ciāns                           zils
             violets; zilganviolets, indigo              fuksīns; violets              rozā

Etymology 2

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The mainstream opinion on this word is that it comes from old uses of the stem balts (white) (q.v.) in names of places containing water, giving rise to the name of the Baltic Sea (already Latin Mare Balticum); it is possible that *balt- in Old Prussian placenames referred originally to the sea or coastal area. Another suggestion is that Latin Mare Balticum is to be derived from Old Norse balti, Danish balte, from Latin balteum (belt) (whence German Belt (sea strait)), perhaps because of this sea's narrowness, or because of the many islands and straits between islands and the continent.[1]

Noun

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Latvian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia lv

balts m (1s declension)

  1. Balt, a Baltic person, someone from the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)
  2. (chiefly in the plural) the Balts (Latvians, Lithuanians, and other related people; the Indo-European people from which Latvians and Lithuanians descend)
  3. (genitive plural) Baltic, pertaining to the Baltic states and their people; pertaining to the ancient Balts
    baltu tautasthe Baltic peoples
    baltu valodasthe Baltic languages
    baltu valodniecībaBaltic linguistics
Usage notes
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This word is almost always used in the plural; the singular forms, though existing, are only sporadically attested (probably due to potential confusion with the adjective balts (white)).

Declension
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Derived terms
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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “balts”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN

Samogitian

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Etymology

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From Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.

Adjective

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balts (feminine balta)

  1. white

Swedish

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Noun

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balts

  1. indefinite genitive singular of balt