Artūras Dubonis proposed another hypothesis, that Lietuva relates to the word ''leičiai'' (plural of ''leitis''). From the middle of the 13th century, ''leičiai'' were a distinct warrior social group of the Lithuanian society subordinate to the Lithuanian ruler or the state itself. The word ''leičiai'' is used in the 14–16th century historical sources as an ethnonym for Lithuanians (but not Samogitians) and is still used, usually poetically or in historical contexts, in the Latvian language, which is closely related to Lithuanian.