Livonia
/lɪˈvoʊniə/noun
A historical region in the eastern Baltic, roughly in present-day Latvia and Estonia.
Did you know?The name Livonia was used by medieval Latin writers for lands associated with the Livs, a Finnic people on the Baltic coast, and it became the label for a major crusading frontier in Northern Europe.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*leip-
“to stick, adhere”
Proto-Balto-Slavic
PBS
*laipā
“mud, clay; something sticky”
Old Norse / Baltic ethnonymic use
Norse/Baltic
Lyf- / Liv-
“a name associated with the Livs, a Finnic people on the Baltic coast”
Medieval Latin
Latin
Livonia
“the land of the Livs; the Livonian region”
Modern English
English
Livonia
“the historical region and its name in English”