lauva

See also: Lauva, Lauvā, and lauvā

Latvian

Lauvas

Alternative forms

• (archaic form) lavis, lauve

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle High German louwe (cf. German Löwe), from Proto-Germanic *laujan, a borrowing from Latin leō. It has been suggested, on the basis of Lithuanian liū̃tas (“lion”), Russian лю́тый зверь (ljútyj zverʹ, “beast, lion”), that there was an earlier Slavo-Balto-Germanic term with the root *liu-; if so, this term was lost very early on in Latvian, replaced by the Middle High German borrowing. First mentioned (as lavis, lauve) in 17th-century Bible translations. A family name Louvis is attested from the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [lāwva]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

lauva m or f (4th declension, irregular gender, dative singular)

1. lion in general (Panthera leo)

   lauvu mātīte, lauvene ― female lion, lioness

   dresēt lauvas ― to tame, train lions

   lauvas tiesa ― the lion's share, the biggest part

2. specifically, a male lion

Usage notes

The term lauva is ambigenous. It is masculine when it refers to males and feminine when it refers to females. It is, however, always declined as a feminine noun, with the exception of its dative singular form, which is lauvam when it refers to a male and lauvai when it refers to a female.

Declension

Declension of lauva (4th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	lauva	lauvas
accusative (akuzatīvs)	lauvu	lauvas
genitive (ģenitīvs)	lauvas	lauvu
dative (datīvs)	lauvam, lauvai	lauvām
instrumental (instrumentālis)	lauvu	lauvām
locative (lokatīvs)	lauvā	lauvās
vocative (vokatīvs)	lauva	lauvas

Synonyms

• (idiom) zvēru ķēniņš

Derived terms

• Lauva (Zodiac symbol)
• lauvene
• lauvēns
• jūras lauva
• skudrlauva

Descendants

• → Livonian: louv

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• lauvene

Noun

lauva n

1. definite plural of lauv

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

lauva n

1. definite plural of lauv