galgo

Galician

Verb

galgo

1. first-person singular present indicative of galgar

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese galgo, from Vulgar Latin gallicus (canis) (“French (dog)”), derived from Gallia (“Gaul, modern-day France”). Doublet of gallico.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡal.ɡo/
• Rhymes: -alɡo
• Hyphenation: gàl‧go

Noun

galgo m (plural galghi)

1. Spanish greyhound

Further reading

• galgo in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Old High German

Alternative forms

• galga

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *galgō, see also Old Saxon galgo, Old Frisian galga, Old English ġealga, Old Norse galgi, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌻𐌲𐌰 (galga).

Noun

galgo m

1. gallows

Declension

Declension of galgo (masculine n-stem)

case	singular	plural
nominative	galgo	galgon, galgun
accusative	galgon, galgun	galgon, galgun
genitive	galgen, galgin	galgōno
dative	galgen, galgin	galgōm, galgōn

Descendants

• Middle High German: galge
  • Alemannic German: Galge
  • German: Galgen
    • → Serbo-Croatian:

      Cyrillic script: галге

      Latin script: galge

  • Luxembourgish: Gaalgen

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaw.ɡu/ [ˈɡaʊ̯.ɡu]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaw.ɡu/ [ˈɡaʊ̯.ɡu]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɡaw.ɡo/ [ˈɡaʊ̯.ɡo]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɡal.ɡu/ [ˈɡaɫ.ɣu]

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -alɡu, (Brazil) -awɡu
• Hyphenation: gal‧go

Etymology 1

galgo

From Old Galician-Portuguese galgo, from Vulgar Latin gallicus (canis) (“French (dog)”), from Gallia (“Gaul, modern-day France”). Doublet of gálico.

Noun

galgo m (plural galgos)

1. greyhound (lean breed of dog used in hunting and racing)

   Synonyms: lebreiro, lebrel, lebréu

Related terms

• Gália
• gálio

Etymology 2

Verb

galgo

1. first-person singular present indicative of galgar

Further reading

• “galgo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “galgo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *gelH-?

Proto-Celtic *galnatibor.

Latin Gallus

Proto-Indo-European *-yós

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -ius

Latin -ia

Latin Gallia

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Proto-Indo-European *-ikos

Proto-Italic *-ikos

Latin -icus

Latin [canis] gallicusellip.

Old Spanish galgo

Spanish galgo

Inherited from Old Spanish galgo, from Vulgar Latin gallicus (“Gaulish”, adjective) through ellipsis of canis gallicus (“Gaulish dog”), from Gallia (“Gaul, modern-day France”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡalɡo/ [ˈɡal.ɣ̞o]
• Rhymes: -alɡo
• Syllabification: gal‧go

Noun

galgo m (plural galgos, feminine galga, feminine plural galgas)

1. greyhound (dog breed)

   Hypernym: lebrel

   Hyponyms: galgo español, galgo italiano

2. ellipsis of galgo inglés (“English greyhound”)
3. greyhound (cocktail)

Derived terms

• cama de galgos
• échale un galgo
• el que nos vendió el galgo
• la galga de Lucas
• no le alcanzarán galgos
• que no se lo salta un galgo
• váyase a espulgar un galgo

Further reading

• “galgo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025