[zæ̀lts]
CilmeFrom Proto-Baltic *želtas (“gold”), itself from *žel-t-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”). (From a variant *gʰel-, *gʷʰel- comes dzeltens (“yellow”), which was also the original meaning of the adjectival form of zelts.) Cognates include dialectal Lithuanian želtas (“golden, blond”), Old Prussian sealtmeno (/zealtmeno/, “oriole (yellow bird)”) (from *zēltmeno), Proto-Slavic *zolto (Old Church Slavonic злато (zlato), Ukrainian зо́лото (zóloto), Belarusian зо́лата (zólata), Bulgarian злато́ (zlató), Czech zlato, Polish złoto), Sanskrit हरि (hari, “to be yellow, green”), Proto-Germanic *gulþą (Old Norse gull, Old High German gold, German Gold, Dutch goud, Swedish guld, English gold); compare also Persian زر (zar), Northern Kurdish zêrr.
- declension-1, masculinegold (chemical element)
“tīrradņa zelts” — gold nuggets
“zelta rūda” — gold ore
“zelta hlorīds” — gold chloride
- declension-1, masculinegolden (having the color of gold)
“zelta dzeltens, zeltdzeltens” — golden yellow
“zelta zivtiņa” — golden fish
- declension-1, masculinegolden (very good, top quality, the best of its kind)
“viņš ir zelts, ne cilvēks” — he is gold, not a person
“zelta cilvkēs” — golden person
“zelta vārdi” — golden words
Formaszelts(nominative, singular) · -(nominative, plural) · zelta(genitive, singular) · -(genitive, plural) · zeltam(dative, singular) · -(dative, plural) · zeltu(accusative, singular) · -(accusative, plural) · zeltu(instrumental, singular) · -(instrumental, plural) · zeltā(locative, singular) · -(locative, plural) · zelt(singular, vocative) · -(plural, vocative)