znots

From Proto-Indo-European *ǵen-, *ǵnō-, *ǵneh₃- (“to know, to recognize”) (whence also zināt, q.v.), possibly of the same origin as *ǵenh₁- (“to create, to generate”) (> “to give birth”, “to have/be a relative”). The initial meaning of znots was apparently “(new) relative”, “man who married into the family/clan”, from which it was restricted to “son-in-law” (note that an 18th-century source still had it as “brother-in-law”). Cognates include Lithuanian žéntas (“son-in-law”), Proto-Slavic *zętь (Old Church Slavonic зѧть (zętĭ), Russian зять (zjatʹ), Belarusian зяць (zjacʹ), Bulgarian зет (zet), Czech zeť, Polish zięć), Sanskrit ज्ञाति (jñatí, “relative”), Ancient Greek γνωστός (gnōstós, “blood relative, brother”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [znuōts]

znots m (1st declension)

1. son-in-law (one's daughter's husband)

   māte ar sirdi un prātu znota pusē ― the mother (was) with heart and soul on (her) son-in-law's side

   viņš taču ir un paliek meitas vīrs un viņas mātes znots ― but he is and reamins (that) daughter's husband and her mother's son-in-law

   par to es gribētu ar jums parunāties, kā znots ar sievasmāti! ― I would like to talk to you about that, as a son-in-law to (his) mother-in-law

• meitas vīrs, meitasvīrs