arājs

Latvian

Arājs

Etymology

Apparently a mixture of arējs (“(temporary) plowman”) and an unattested form *artājs, from art (“to plow”) +‎ -ājs. Cognates include Proto-Slavic *ortajь (Russian archaic ратай (rataj), Old Church Slavonic ратай (rátaj)).[1]

Noun

arājs m (1st declension)

  1. plowman (person who plows the land (with a horse-drawn plow)
    arājs stingri turēja arklu ― the plowman firmly held the plow
    arājs nāca tīrumā art ― the plowman came to the field to plow
    arājs ara un gani ganīja ― the plowman plows and the shepherds tend (the sheep)

Usage notes

The difference between arājs and arējs seems to be that arājs describes a profession, a permanent way of life, whereas arējs refers to someone (or some animal) who happens to be plowing now.

Declension

Synonyms

References

  1. ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “art”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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