menca

See also: mencā

Latvian

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”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mǣntsa]

• Audio:

  (file)

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

Declension

Declension of menca (4th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	menca	mencas
accusative (akuzatīvs)	mencu	mencas
genitive (ģenitīvs)	mencas	mencu
dative (datīvs)	mencai	mencām
instrumental (instrumentālis)	mencu	mencām
locative (lokatīvs)	mencā	mencās
vocative (vokatīvs)	menca	mencas