čūska
Latvian
Alternative forms
Etymology
This word is traditionally related to čukstēt (“to whisper; to hiss, to sizzle”) and considered imitative of a snake's hissing noise. It seems more likely, though, that the sound symbolism has influenced (cf. dialectal variants ķūska, cūška), but not created, the word, which could then be derived from earlier *čuk-skā-, from *ķuk-, *tʲuk with a suffix -skā, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Baltic *tyuk-, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *tewk-, *tūk-, from a stem *tew-, *stew- (“to strike, to crush; to pierce”) (whence also Middle Low German stoken (“to stab, to prickle”), German stochern (“to pick, to poke”), Sanskrit दति (tudáti, “to push, to strike, to jab, to pierce”)). The original meaning of čūska was “one who stabs, pokes, pierces” (cf. dialectal verb čūkāt, čūskāt (“to pick, to poke”), čuslis (“long, pointed skewer; oven poker”)), and it was at first a nickname which replaced the earlier term odze, now restricted to a specific type of snake (“viper”).[1]
Pronunciation
Audio: | (file) |
Noun
čūska f (4th declension)
- snake (many species of legless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes)
- indīga čūska ― poisonous snake
- gludenā čūska ― smooth snake (Coronella austriaca)
- čūskas kodums, kodiens ― snake bite
- čūska dzeļ, šņāc, ložņā ― the snake bites, hisses, crawls
- lokās kā čūska ― s/he twists, writhes like a snake
- a malicious, evil person
Declension
References
- ^ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “čūska”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca[1] (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
- Latvian etymologies from LEV
- Latvian terms derived from Proto-Baltic
- Latvian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latvian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latvian words with level intonation
- Latvian terms with audio links
- Latvian lemmas
- Latvian nouns
- Latvian entries with topic categories using raw markup
- Latvian feminine nouns
- Latvian terms with usage examples
- Latvian fourth declension nouns
- lv:Snakes