balts

Etymology
Borrowed from.

Noun

 * 1) courtship display

Etymology 1
From an unattested verb (of which  originally was the past participle form; compare 🇨🇬, and Latvian 17th-century derived verb, later replaced by other verbs, derived from : from  , from , . Cognates include 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. In several Indo-European languages, reflexes of the stem ,  are often found in words relating to water or humid places, probably due to their shiny, reflective surfaces: 🇨🇬 (“marsh, swamp”), 🇨🇬, Proto-Slavic  (🇨🇬, 🇨🇬 (dialectal “puddle, lake”), 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬). This usage is also attested in Baltic languages, as in, e.g., 🇨🇬 placename  (swamp). It left also traces in Latvian, in the names of lakes or swamps (Baltenis, Baltiņa purvs), and is a possible source of the word.

Adjective



 * 1) white having the color of, e.g., snow or milk
 * 2) white light, not dark; without color; gray
 * 3) white a member of the Caucasian race
 * 4)  clean
 * 5)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1) white light, not dark; without color; gray
 * 2) white a member of the Caucasian race
 * 3)  clean
 * 4)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1) white light, not dark; without color; gray
 * 2) white a member of the Caucasian race
 * 3)  clean
 * 4)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1) white a member of the Caucasian race
 * 2)  clean
 * 3)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1)  clean
 * 2)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1)  clean
 * 2)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard
 * 1)  counterrevolutionary, member of the white guard

Etymology 2
The mainstream opinion on this word is that it comes from old uses of the stem (q.v.) in names of places containing water, giving rise to the name of the Baltic Sea (already 🇨🇬); it is possible that  in 🇨🇬 placenames referred originally to the sea or coastal area. Another suggestion is that 🇨🇬 is to be derived from, 🇨🇬, from (whence 🇨🇬), perhaps because of this sea's narrowness, or because of the many islands and straits between islands and the continent.

Noun

 * 1) Balt, a Baltic person, someone from the Baltic states (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia)
 * 2)  the Balts Latvians, Lithuanians, and other related people; the Indo-European people from which Latvians and Lithuanians descend
 * 3)  Baltic, pertaining to the Baltic states and their people; pertaining to the ancient Balts

Usage notes
This word is almost always used in the plural; the singular forms, though existing, are only sporadically attested (probably due to potential confusion with the adjective ).

Etymology
From.

Adjective

 * 1)  white