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gaist

Pronunciation: [ɡàjst]

“gaist” is a Latvian word. Its 7 meanings in English:

verb

  1. to dissipate (to disappear into the surrounding environment)
  2. to disappear in the distance, to become gradually undistinguishable from one's surroundings as one moves away, or because of darkness, fog, etc.
  3. to evaporate (to become vapor and disappear in the surrounding environment)
  4. to wear off, to fade, to recede, to disappear, to end
  5. to fade, to disappear (to stop shining)
  6. to fade, to fall gradually silent
  7. to go by, to disappear

Etymology

The origin of this word is unclear. If, as has been proposed, gaist is connected to dialectal Latvian atgaiša, atgaišis (“wind blow; windy place”), then its original meaning could have been “to blow, to breathe,” perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷes- (“to extinguish, to quench”) (whence also Latvian dzēst (“to extinguish, to quench”); q.v.): its length grade *gʷēs- would become *gʷeys-, with…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.