burkāns

Etymology

A borrowing from Baltic German burkan, itself from Old Frisian bure, burre (“conic root; top of a stake, pile (in the ground)”) + a diminutive suffix -ken, -kan (cf. the Old Frisian reduced form burke (“little root”)). The final a was lengthened in Latvian under the influence of words ending in -āns. From Latvian, the word was borrowed into Russian local dialects (буркан (burkan), боркан (borkan)), into Estonian (porgand), and also, probably via Russian, into other Finnic languages. The word is first mentioned in Latvian in 17th-century dictionaries. (A minority opinion considers burkāns an inherited word, cognate with Russian морковь (morkovʹ) (< *mъrky), both from a possible Proto-Indo-European *mr̥k, *br̥k.)^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [būɾkāːns]

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

burkāns m (1st declension)

1. carrot (a plant with a large edible root, often orange in colour, esp. Daucus carota)

   galda burkāns ― common (lit. table) carrot

   lopbarības burkāns ― forrage carrot

   burkānu vaga ― carrot furrow

   burkānu lauks ― carrot field

   ravēt burkānus ― to weed carrots

   burkānu kaitēkļi ― carrot pests

   no savvaļas burkāna krustojot izaudzēts lauku burkāns ― by crossing wild carrots the field carrot was grown

2. carrot (the edible root of that plant, often orange in colour and used as a vegetable)

   dzert burkānu sulu ― to drink carrot juice

   burkānu salāti ― carrot salad

   tīrīt burkānus ― to clean carrots

   pagrabos glabā kartupeļus, burkānus, bietes un citas saknes ― in the cellars one stores potatoes, carrots, beets and other roots

   Tenis atkal piesarka kā burkāns ― Tenis again blushed like a carrot

References