gėlė
Lithuanian
Etymology
Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a lengthened vowel grade of the same root as gel̃tas (“yellow”),[1] but this is semantically dubious due to the diversity of colors of flowers, as well as the exact derivational morphology being unclear.[2] That said, the color yellow tends to evoke connotations of shining and blooming in various languages, as Buck notes,[3] so the semantic connection is not too weak.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ɡʲeːˈlʲeː]
Noun
gėlė̃ f (plural gė̃lės) stress pattern 4
- flower (a plant that bears flowers)
- Synonym: žolynas
Usage notes
gėlė and the less common žolynas (“herbaceous plant; plant with flowers”) refer to an entire plant, while žiedas refers to just the part (the flower itself).
Declension
| singular (vienaskaita) |
plural (daugiskaita) | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative (vardininkas) | gėlė̃ | gė̃lės |
| genitive (kilmininkas) | gėlė̃s | gėlių̃ |
| dative (naudininkas) | gė̃lei | gėlė́ms |
| accusative (galininkas) | gė̃lę | gėlès |
| instrumental (įnagininkas) | gėlè | gėlėmi̇̀s |
| locative (vietininkas) | gėlėjè | gėlėsè |
| vocative (šauksmininkas) | gė̃le | gė̃lės |
See also
- žiedas
- Flowers in Lithuanian
References
- ^ Smoczyński, Wojciech (2007) “gėlė̃”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka litewskiego[1] (in Polish), Vilnius: Uniwersytet Wileński, page 167
- ^ “gėlė̃” in Hock et al., Altlitauisches etymologisches Wörterbuch 2.0 (online, 2020–); p. 351 in ALEW 1.1 (online, 2019).
- ^ “gėlė”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012
Further reading
- “gėlė”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2025
- “gėlė”, in Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of contemporary Lithuanian], ekalba.lt, 1954–2025