In the article, the verb gādāt, an entry for the Historical Dictionary of Latvian (16th–17th centuries), and other formatives with this word are discussed. In the early Latvian texts, a wide and forked word-formation nest forms around the verb gādāt, including, for example, derived words gādāties, negādāt, gādāšana, apgādāt, apgādāties, apgādāšana, atsagādāties, iesagādāties, atgādāt, atgādāties, atgādāšana, atgādināt, iegādāties, sagādāt, sagāds, gāds, gādība, etc. There are several meanings of the word gādāt in early texts, which differ from the ones used nowadays, so the authors of the Dictionary have distinguished three of them: 1) to aim, seek, strive (for something); 2) to take care, to look after; 3) to be concerned, to worry (about). The word gādāt also had a more ancient meaning, ‘to think’, from which these three meanings have developed. Though in early religious texts the meaning ‘to think’ is not common, it appears in some prefixal verbs, for example, apgādāt ‘to consider’, iesagādāties ‘to come to one’s mind’, atgādāt ‘to recall, to remember’, sagādāt ‘to consider, to think’, iegādāt ‘to remember, to recall’. The meanings of the basic word also widely fork in the meanings of the words derived from it. One group of meanings is connected with the ancient meaning of the word gādāt ‘to think’. It is dominant, for example, in such word-formation chain as atgādāt, atgādināt, atgādāšana, etc., while the other group is connected to the meaning ‘to care, to look after’. The last is more common nowadays, so the words gādāt, apgādāt, sagādāt, gādība, etc. are known with this meaning also in modern Latvian. In the texts of the 16th–17th centuries, reflexive verbs are often used; an interesting feature characteristic to these verbs – the reflexive verb is often used in the same meaning as the direct verb. For example, gādāt and gādāties, iegādāt and iegādāties, atgādāt and atgādāties.
Dead or alive – Some questions about objects and people
