skaitīt

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *skait-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *(s)keit-, *(s)koit-, an ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut; to separate”).

The original meaning was thus “cut (off)”, apparently a reference to incisions made on wood to mark numbers or quantities (a custom found among many peoples, and also among ancient Latvians); the noun skaits “number” would have originally meant “incision”, and the verb skaitīt “to make incisions” > “to mark the number”, “to count”.

It is also possible that another stem, proposed by some researchers as the source of skaitīt: Proto-Indo-European *kʷeyt- (“to observe”) (> Russian честь (čestʹ, “honor”), Sanskrit चेतति (cétati, “to notice, observe”), केत (kéta, “will, intention, tendency, invitation”)), has converged historically with *skey- in this word.

Cognates include Lithuanian skaitýti (“to read; to count; to calculate”), Proto-Slavic *čisti, *čitati “to read, to count”, from earlier Proto-Slavic *kitō or *skitō (Old Church Slavonic чисти (čisti, “to count”), first person present tense чьтѫ (čĭtǫ), Russian чита́ть (čitátʹ, “to read”), dialectal and archaic честь (čestʹ, “to read, to count”), Bulgarian чета́ (četá, “to read”), dialectal четъ́ (četǎ́, “to count”), Czech čítat (“to read, to count”), čísti (“to read”), Polish czytać (“to read”), Old Polish czyść), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (skaidan), German scheiden (“to divide, to separate”).^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [skàjtîːt]

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Verb

skaitīt (transitive or intransitive, 3rd conjugation, present skaitu, skaiti, skaita, past skaitīju)

to count (to say the numbers in order)
skaitīt līdz desmit ― to count to ten

skaitīt uz priekšu un atpakaļ ― to count up and down

iemacīties skaitīt ― to learn (how) to count

sensenos laikos cilvēks partis skaitīt tikai līdz divi ― in ancient times, people could count only (up) to two

Annele putnu gaidot skaita: divdesmit, piecdesmit, simtu, divi simti... bet debess paliek kā izmirusi ― Annele, waiting for the bird(s), counted: twenty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred... but the sky remained as if dead
to count (to establish how many objects, people, etc. there are in a given group by assigning to each of them a number in order)
skaitīt grāmatas ― to count books

skaitīt naudu ― to count money

skaitīt balsis ― to count votes

skaitīt ar pirkstiem ― to count on (one's) fingers

skaitāmie kauliņi ― abacus (lit. countable beads)

viņš skaitīja, cik katra loga restēm caurumiņu ― he counted how many holes (there) were on the window grill

vecais sienas pulkstenis gurdi skaita sekundes, kas kļūst par minūtēm un stundām ― the old wall clock tiredly counts the seconds that (in turn) become minutes and hours

agrāk šādus smilšu pulksteņus lietoja, skaitot slimnieka pulsu ― earlier they used such hourglasses (when) taking (lit. counting) a person's pulse
to count (to measure the time from a certain event on)
Latvijā futbola sākumu skaita ar 1907. gadu, kad Rīgā organizēja pirmo futbola kolektīvu ― the beginning of soccer in Latvia is counted with (= from) 1907, when the first soccer team was organized in Riga
to count (syllables), to scan, to recite (poetry), to pray prayer)
vīri un sievas... klusībā skaita tēvreizi — men and women... quietly recited the Lord's prayer

man sarīkojumā bija jāskaita Aspazijas dzejolis ― at the party I had to recite Aspazija's poem
to recite (to speak monotonously, usually repeating the same words)
“nakts un tumsa... nakts un tumsa..”. viņas lūpas skaita šos divus vārdus ― “night and darkness... night and darkness..”. her lips recited these two words

Gunta jau attin ēdamlietu saini pie galda un skaita skaļā balsī: “halva, pīrāgi, kotletes, sviests, rieksti” — Gunta unwrapped the foodstuffs on the table and recited aloud: “halva, pies, meatballs, butter, nuts”
to count (something) as (something) (to consider something as part of some group; to believe something to be true, to have happened)
mani lūdzu neskaitīt līdz ― please don't count me in

skaitīt kādu par izglītotu ― to count (= consider) someone as educated

ja Daņilovas gravai pārbrauksim, varam skaitīt, ka esam mājās ― if (= when) we will have passed Daņilova's glen, we can count (ourselves) already at home

Conjugation

conjugation of skaitīt

	INDICATIVE (īstenības izteiksme)				IMPERATIVE (pavēles izteiksme)
		Present (tagadne)	Past (pagātne)	Future (nākotne)	IMPERATIVE (pavēles izteiksme)
1st pers. sg.	es	skaitu	skaitīju	skaitīšu	—
2nd pers. sg.	tu	skaiti	skaitīji	skaitīsi	skaiti
3rd pers. sg.	viņš, viņa	skaita	skaitīja	skaitīs	lai skaita
1st pers. pl.	mēs	skaitām	skaitījām	skaitīsim	skaitīsim
2nd pers. pl.	jūs	skaitāt	skaitījāt	skaitīsiet, skaitīsit	skaitiet
3rd pers. pl.	viņi, viņas	skaita	skaitīja	skaitīs	lai skaita

RENARRATIVE (atstāstījuma izteiksme)			PARTICIPLES (divdabji)
Present	skaitot		Present Active 1 (Adj.)		skaitošs
Past	esot skaitījis		Present Active 2 (Adv.)		skaitīdams
Future	skaitīšot		Present Active 3 (Adv.)		skaitot
Imperative	lai skaitot		Present Active 4 (Obj.)		skaitām
CONDITIONAL (vēlējuma izteiksme)			Past Active		skaitījis
Present	skaitītu		Present Passive		skaitāms
Past	būtu skaitījis		Past Passive		skaitīts
DEBITIVE (vajadzības izteiksme)			NOMINAL FORMS
Indicative	(būt) jāskaita		Infinitive (nenoteiksme)		skaitīt
Conjunctive 1	esot jāskaita		Negative Infinitive		neskaitīt
Conjunctive 2	jāskaitot		Verbal noun		skaitīšana

Derived terms

prefixed verbs:

other derived terms:

Related terms

References

^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “skaitīt”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca‎^[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN

[1] Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “skaitīt”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca‎^[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN

[1]