lauva – Latvian noun declension

Noun: lauva
Hyphenation:

Gender: Masculine, Feminine Declension:

Singular

Nominative	lauva
Accusative	lauvu
Genitive	lauvas
Dative	lauvam; lauvai
Instrumental	lauvu
Locative	lauvā
Vocative	lauva

Plural

Nominative	lauvas
Accusative	lauvas
Genitive	lauvu
Dative	lauvām
Instrumental	lauvām
Locative	lauvās
Vocative	lauvas

Sample Sentences

lauvu mātīte, lauvene (female lion, lioness)
dresēt lauvas (to tame, train lions)
lauvas tiesa (the lion's share, the biggest part)

Nouns inflected like lauva

jūras lauva, aizmārša, gnīda, lauva, aba, pļāpa, slepkava, nejēga,

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle High German louwe (cf. German Löwe), from Proto-Germanic *laujan, a borrowing from Latin leō. It has been suggested, on the basis of Lithuanian liū̃tas (“lion”), Russian лю́тый зверь (ljútyj zverʹ, “beast, lion”), that there was an earlier Slavo-Balto-Germanic term with the root *liu-; if so, this term was lost very early on in Latvian, replaced by the Middle High German borrowing. First mentioned (as lavis, lauve) in 17th-century Bible translations. A family name Louvis is attested from the 16th century. See: German Nouns 'Löwe', Latin Nouns 'leō'.