svainis

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *swaynya-, from Proto-Indo-European *swoini, probably meaning “ours,” “one of us”, from *swe-, *swo- with an extra in, from the reflexive pronominal stem *se- (“one's own”) with an extra -we, -wo (whence also Latvian savs). The meaning probably went from “one of us, one of our relatives” to “one who has become a relative (by marriage)” and was then restricted to “brother-in-law.” Cognates include Lithuanian sváinis (“wife's sister's husband”), Old High German swein (“servant, shepherd”) (< “one of us”), Messapic veinam (“one's own (acc.)”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [svâjnis]

Noun

svainis m (2nd declension, feminine form: svaine or svainiene)

1. brother-in-law (one's wife's brother or one's husband's brother; also, one's sister's husband, or one's wife's sister's husband)

   tev pašam māsa un svainis strādā kaut kur kolhozā ― your very sister and brother-in-law work somewhere in a collective farm

   Līzbetei daudz radu nebija... pilnīgi cerams, ka svainis Līdaks ar māsu Gerdu bērēs nebūs ― Līzbete didn't have many relatives... it can certainly be hoped that (her) brother-in-law Līdaks and (her) sister Gerda won't be at the funeral

Declension

Declension of svainis (2nd declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	svainis	svaiņi
accusative (akuzatīvs)	svaini	svaiņus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	svaiņa	svaiņu
dative (datīvs)	svainim	svaiņiem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	svaini	svaiņiem
locative (lokatīvs)	svainī	svaiņos
vocative (vokatīvs)	svaini	svaiņi

Derived terms

• svainība