talpa

See also: talpă and Talpa

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English talpa, from Latin talpa (“mole”). Doublet of taupe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtælpə/
• Rhymes: -ælpə

Noun

talpa (plural talpae)

1. (medicine, obsolete) An encysted tumour on the head; a wen.

Anagrams

• Plata, lapta

Hungarian

Etymology

talp (“sole”) +‎ -a (possessive suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɒlpɒ]
• Hyphenation: tal‧pa

Noun

talpa

1. third-person singular single-possession possessive of talp

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	talpa	—
accusative	talpát	—
dative	talpának	—
instrumental	talpával	—
causal-final	talpáért	—
translative	talpává	—
terminative	talpáig	—
essive-formal	talpaként	—
essive-modal	talpául	—
inessive	talpában	—
superessive	talpán	—
adessive	talpánál	—
illative	talpába	—
sublative	talpára	—
allative	talpához	—
elative	talpából	—
delative	talpáról	—
ablative	talpától	—
non-attributive possessive – singular	talpáé	—
non-attributive possessive – plural	talpáéi	—

Italian

Etymology

From Latin talpa (“mole”). Doublet of topo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtal.pa/
• Rhymes: -alpa
• Hyphenation: tàl‧pa

Noun

talpa f (plural talpe)

1. mole (animal or planted spy)
2. moleskin
3. excavator

Noun

talpa m (invariable)

1. moleskin (medium taupe-brown)

Anagrams

• palta

Latin

Etymology

The etymology is unknown. Lewis and Short attribute this to the same root as Latin scalpō. However it is often ascribed to Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“ground”). Maybe transferred from a Germanic word for “paw” owing to the animal’s massive forelimbs, see Romanian talpă (“sole”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtaɫ.pa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtal.pa]

Noun

talpa f (genitive talpae); first declension

1. mole (a burrowing animal)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	talpa	talpae
genitive	talpae	talpārum
dative	talpae	talpīs
accusative	talpam	talpās
ablative	talpā	talpīs
vocative	talpa	talpae

Derived terms

• talpīnus

Descendants

• Asturian: topu
• Catalan: talp
• Corsican: topu
• Emilian: tèlpa
• → Esperanto: talpo
• Old French: taupe
  • French: taupe
    • → English: taupe
  • Norman: taupe
• Galician: toupa, tiopa
• Italian: talpa, topo
• Occitan: talpa
• ⇒ Portuguese: toupeira
• Spanish: talpa, topo

References

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “talpa”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 605
• “talpa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “talpa”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "talpa", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “talpa”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Middle English

Etymology

From Latin talpa (“mole”).

Noun

talpa (plural talpas)

1. growth, abscess, wen

Descendants

• English: talpa
• → Welsh: talp

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin talpa (“mole”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtalpo/

• Audio (Béarn):

  (file)

Noun

talpa m (plural talpas)

1. mole

Romanian

Noun

talpa

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of talpă

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Likely from Romanian talpă (“sole; treadle; board”), which see for the uncertain way of diffusion.

Noun

tȃlpa f (Cyrillic spelling та̑лпа)

1. (regional) plank

   Synonym: dàska

Declension

Declension of talpa

	singular	plural
nominative	talpa	talpe
genitive	talpe	tȃlpā / tȃlpī
dative	talpi	talpama
accusative	talpu	talpe
vocative	talpo	talpe
locative	talpi	talpama
instrumental	talpom	talpama

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtalpa/ [ˈt̪al.pa]
• Rhymes: -alpa
• Syllabification: tal‧pa

Noun

talpa f (plural talpas)

1. talpa

   Synonym: talparia

Further reading

• “talpa”, 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