From Proto-Balto-Slavic *tawtā-, from Proto-Indo-European *towtā, an o-grade form of *tewtā-, *tewtéh₂ (“throng, multitude; people; land”), from the stem *tew- (“to swell”). This word had several meanings in its history, often still found in folk tales: “(group of) foreigners,” “strangers,” “enemy tribe,” etc. (Compare Proto-Slavic *ťȗďь). In the 17th century, ļaudis, not tauta, was used in the sense of “people, nation.” In translations of German texts, (non-native) translators often used tauta to mean also “tribe,” “nation,” “(social) group” (compare German Geschlecht, Gattung), even “(animal or vegetal) species.” In the 19th century, the range of uses was narrowed, especially in the 1850s and 1860s with the first Latvian National Awakening, where the word tauta became associated with the idea of “nation” and was first used to refer to the Latvian people. It then stabilized with its current (political-ethnographic) meaning. Cognates include Lithuanian tautà, Sudovian taud (from *tauta), Old Prussian tauto (“land”), Proto-Germanic *þeudō (Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 (þiuda), Old English þeod, Old High German diot, German deutsch, from *þiudiskaz), Old Irish túath (“people, tribe”), Oscan touto (“country, citizens, community”).