čūska

See also: cūška, cūškā, and čūskā

Latvian

Čūska

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 Proto-Baltic *tyuk-, from 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

  • IPA(key): [tʃūska]
(file)

Noun

čūska f (4th declension)

  1. snake (many species of legless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes)
    indīga čūskapoisonous snake
    gludenā čūskasmooth snake (Coronella austriaca)
    čūskas kodums, kodienssnake bite
    čūska dzeļ, šņāc, ložņāthe snake bites, hisses, crawls
    lokās kā čūskas/he twists, writhes like a snake
  2. a malicious, evil person

Declension

References

  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), čūska”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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