nejēga

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See also: nejēgā

Latvian

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Etymology

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From ne- +‎ jēga (meaning, sense, knowledge). It is a remnant of an earlier sense of jēga, “intelligent person.”[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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nejēga m or f (4th declension)

  1. ignorant, unskilled, stupid person (someone without the necessary knowledge or skills for something)
    nejēga šahāa person unskilled in chess
    nejēga lauku darbosa person unskilled for farm work
    nejēga muzikāa person ignorant of music
    svešais pievienojas viņām un apjautājas par skolu... galīgs nejēga; acīm redzot, nezina, ka mācības tikai šodien pa īstam sākušāsthe stranger joined them and asked about the school... (he was) a fool; apparently unaware that classes really started only today
    gadās dažreiz arī kļūmes... tad meistars baras un sauc mūs par nejēgāmsometimes failure happens... then the teacher scolds us and calls us stupid
  2. fool, foolish person (someone whose behavior or actions are nonsensical)
    pilnīgs nejēgaa complete fool
    šeit dzīvodams, arvien skaidrāk saprotu, cik liels nejēga esmu bijisliving here, I understand more and more clearly how big a fool I have been

Usage notes

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The term nejēga 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 nejēgam when it refers to a male and nejēgai when it refers to a female.

Declension

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Synonyms

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References

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