CilmeFrom Proto-Baltic *widús, from Proto-Indo-European *widʰu- (“forest, wood”). The semantic change from “forest” to “region, area (between villages)” and to “middle, between” probably comes from a situation in which the areas between villages are mostly occupied by forest (cf. the opposite change, from “middle” to “forest,” in Latvian mežs; these two words, mežs and vidus apparently swapped their meanings). Cognates include Lithuanian vidùs (“interior, middle”), Old Prussian widus (“boot stitch”); in the original sense of “forest,” also Old Irish fid (“wood, firewood, forest”), Old Norse viðr (“forest, bushes; tree, stump, log, mast; (adj.) far, wide, big”), Old High German witu, wito (“firewood, wood”), Old English widu, wudu (“forest, bushes, tree”), English wood.
- declension-3, masculinemiddle, center (place situated at approximately the same distance from the edges, sides, extremities (of something))
“ezera, meža, dārza vidus” — the middle of the lake, forest, garden
“pagalma vidus” — the middle of the backyard
“vidus dialekts” — the middle dialect (on which Standard Latvian is based)
- declension-3, masculinemiddle (moment or period separated from the beginning and the end (of some process) by similarly long time intervals)
“nakts vidus” — the middle of the night
“ziemas vidus” — the middle of winter
“spēles, izrādes vidus” — the middle of the game, of the show
- declension-3, masculinemiddle (the inside, the internal part (of something))
“vecmāmiņa ar īpašu nazīti izgreiza āboliem vidus un piebrēa tos ar cukuru un kanēli” — grandma cut the middles of the apples with a special knife and poured sugar and cinnamon on them
“tur agrāk vējš locīja vecu, līku vītolu ar izpuvušu vidu” — there, before, the wind would bned an old, crooked willow with a rotten middle
- declension-3, masculinein the middle of, in the midst of, amid, among
“draugu vidū” — among friends
“kad Zelma bija mūsu vidū,...” — when Zelma was among us, in our midst,...
“strādnieku vidū jau droši vien klīst visnegudrākās baumas” — among workers run probably the most nonsensical rumors
- declension-3, masculinemiddle, waist
“Emma klusēdama aplika roku ap Kristīnes vidu” — Emma silently put (her) hand (= arm) around Kristīnes waist
“viņš gāja vēl; zāle sniedzās līdz vidum” — he went further; the grass reached till (his body's) middle, waist
“tik daudz Ēriks nebija radis strādāt, tādēļ reizēm viņam iesāpējās vidus” — Ēriks was not used to working so much, so sometimes his middle, waist would begin to hurt
- declension-3, masculineregion, area
“aizgāja uz citu vidu dzīvot” — he went to live in another region, area
“Rozenberģis vēl ciemošoties divas nedēļas šai vidū” — Rozenberģis supposedly stayed for two weeks as a visitor in that region
Formasvidus(nominative, singular) · vidi(nominative, plural) · vidus(genitive, singular) · vidu(genitive, plural) · vidum(dative, singular) · vidiem(dative, plural) · vidu(accusative, singular) · vidus(accusative, plural) · vidu(instrumental, singular) · vidiem(instrumental, plural) · vidū(locative, singular) · vidos(locative, plural) · vidus(singular, vocative) · vidi(plural, vocative)
Avots: Wiktionary