nejēga

See also: nejēgā

Latvian

Etymology

From ne- +‎ jēga (“meaning, sense, knowledge”). It is a remnant of an earlier sense of jēga, “intelligent person.”

Noun

nejēga m or f (4th declension)

1. ignorant, unskilled, stupid person (someone without the necessary knowledge or skills for something)

   nejēga šahā ― a person unskilled in chess

   nejēga lauku darbos ― a person unskilled for farm work

   nejēga muzikā ― a person ignorant of music

   svešais pievienojas viņām un apjautājas par skolu... galīgs nejēga; acīm redzot, nezina, ka mācības tikai šodien pa īstam sākušās ― the stranger joined them and asked about the school... (he was) a fool; apparently unaware that classes really started only today

   gadās dažreiz arī kļūmes... tad meistars baras un sauc mūs par nejēgām ― sometimes failure happens... then the teacher scolds us and calls us stupid

2. fool, foolish person (someone whose behavior or actions are nonsensical)

   pilnīgs nejēga ― a complete fool

   šeit dzīvodams, arvien skaidrāk saprotu, cik liels nejēga esmu bijis ― living here, I understand more and more clearly how big a fool I have been

Usage notes

The term nejēga is ambigenous. It is masculine when it refers to males and feminine when it refers to females. It is, however, always declined as a feminine noun, with the exception of its dative singular form, which is nejēgam when it refers to a male and nejēgai when it refers to a female.

Declension

Declension of nejēga (4th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	nejēga	nejēgas
accusative (akuzatīvs)	nejēgu	nejēgas
genitive (ģenitīvs)	nejēgas	nejēgu
dative (datīvs)	nejēgam, nejēgai	nejēgām
instrumental (instrumentālis)	nejēgu	nejēgām
locative (lokatīvs)	nejēgā	nejēgās
vocative (vokatīvs)	nejēga	nejēgas

Synonyms

• duraks
• idiots, idiote
• muļķis, muļķe, muļķadesa
• neprātis, neprāte
• stulbenis, stulbene

Related terms

• jēga
• jēgt