menca

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *menkyā-, from Proto-Indo-European *menk- (“to knead, to crush”) (> “to weaken, to make small, low-valued”); the full en remained in Kurzeme dialects (compare, from the same stem, mīksts (“soft”), mīcīt (“to knead”), where en > ī), from which it spread to other dialects. The semantic development suggests that this fish was seen as unimportant or low-valued. Cognates include Lithuanian ménkė, dialectal menkia; the same stem is also found in Lithuanian meñkas (“minor, small, unimportant, weak”).^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mǣntsa]

Noun

menca f (4th declension)

1. cod, codfish (sea fish, family Gadidae)

   Atlantijas menca ― Atlantic cod

   mencu sugas ― cod species (plural)

   mencu zveja ― cod fishing

   mencu fileja ― cod filet

   kūpināta menca ― smoked cod

   menca eļļā ― codfish in oil

References