skaists

This word results from the merging of two different lines: (a) a derivation from the same stem as skaidrs (“clear”) (q.v.): *skaid-tas > *skaistas > skaists; the older “clear, pure” meaning can be found in examples up to the beginning of the 19th century; and (b) the past participle of kaist (“to be hot, to glow”), with an extra initial s from a former reflexive marker (compare apskaisties (“to get angry”) from ap-s-kaist-ies). The meaning probably changed as follows: “warm, hot, heated” > “red, flushed” > “bright, attractive, beautiful.” The older “red, flushed” meaning can be found in older sources and in folk tales (skaistiem vaigiem “with flushed cheeks”). Cognates include Lithuanian skaistùs, dialectal skáistas (“bright, light, clear, glittering, sparkling, beautiful, pure, chaste”).[1]

• IPA^(key): [skāīsts]

skaists (definite skaistais, comparative skaistāks, superlative visskaistākais, adverb skaisti)

1. beautiful (having beauty; corresponding to certain aesthetic ideals, provoking certain aesthetic feelings)

   skaista mūzika, glezna ― beautiful music, painting

   skaists stāsts ― beautiful story

   skaista seja, balss ― beautiful face, voice

   skaists dārzs ― beautiful garden

   skaists (vājais, daiļais) dzimums ― the beautiful (weak, graceful) sex (i.e., women)

2. beautiful, pleasant (which causes, gives pleasure)

   skaistas atmiņas ― beautiful memories

   skaisti apsveikuma vārdi ― beautiful words of greeting

   skaists laiks, rīts ― beautiful weather, morning

3. beautiful, good (having good moral value, being socially useful)

   skaista dvēsele ― beautiful soul

   skaistas domas ― beautiful thoughts

   skaista rīcība ― beautiful action

   skaisti nodzīvots mūžs ― a beautifully lived life

4. (of animals, plants) beautiful, good (well kept, having desirable characteristics, e.g., for breeding)

   skaists suns ― beautiful dog

   skaisti kartupeļi ― beautiful potatoes

• daiļš
• glīts
• grezns
• krāšņs
• (colloquial) smuks

• neglīts

• skaistulis, skaistule
• skaistums