cirslis

Latvian

Cirslis

Alternative forms

• (dialectal forms) cirsnis, cirksnis, cirkste

Etymology

Derived from cirst (“to cut, to hew, to chop”), from Proto-Baltic *kir-, from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *kr̥- (“to cut”). The semantic evolution was probably “to cut” > “to chop”, also “to gnaw, to bite, to pierce”, whence cirslis “gnawer”. Cognates include Lithuanian kar̃stas, kertùkas, kirstukas, Ukrainian черте́ц (čertéc).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tsìɾslis]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cirslis m (2nd declension)

1. shrew (mammal sp.)

   ūdens cirslis ― water shrew

   mazais cirslis ― small shrew

   ciršļa ala ― shrew burrow

Declension

Declension of cirslis (2nd)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative	cirslis	ciršļi
genitive	ciršļa	ciršļu
dative	cirslim	ciršļiem
accusative	cirsli	ciršļus
instrumental	cirsli	ciršļiem
locative	cirslī	ciršļos
vocative	cirsli	ciršļi