gads
English
Latvian
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Balto-Slavic *gadás, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰodʰ-, o-grade of *gʰedʰ- (“to unify, to match”) (whence also gadīties, q.v.). The semantic evolution of the term probably went from “matching, appropriate” > “appropriate, determined, specific time (period)” > “(church) holiday” > “sequence of church holidays in a year” > “year”. Since this evolution parallels that of Russian год (god), there may also have been Russian influence on the meaning changes of Latvian gads. Cognates include Latgalian gods, Lithuanian gadýnė (“time, period”) (< Belarusian гадзі́на (hadzína)), Old Church Slavonic годъ (godŭ, “suitable time, holiday, year”), Russian, Belarusian год (god, “year”), Upper Sorbian hod, hody (“winter holidays”), Czech hod (“church holiday”), Polish gody (“wedding feast, wedding”), Serbo-Croatian gȏd (“name day, important holiday”).[1]
Declension
References
- Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “gads”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN