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Definition 2024

muļķis

muļķis

Latvian

Noun

muļķis m (2nd declension, feminine form: muļķe)

  1. (male) fool, stupid man (man with little intelligence)
    uzskatīt, turēt kādu par muļķi‎ ― to consider someone a fool
    zvejot prot katrs muļķis; nodot zivis, tā ir māksla‎ ― any fool can catch fish; to deliver the fish, now that is an art
    muļķis! viņš savā stulbumā bija iznīcinājis manu pašu labāko foreļu vietu‎ ― fool! he in his stupidity had destroyed my own best trout (catching) place

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References

  1. ↑ Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “muļķis”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, ISBN 9984-700-12-7

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *mil-, *mul- (with an extra -k), from Proto-Indo-European *mel-, *ml̥- ‎(“to push, to crush, to grate, to grind”) (whence also malt ‎(“to grind, to mill”), q.v.). The semantic evolution was probably “to grind” > “to get lost” (via a comparison between grinding movements and the aimless motion of someone who got lost; see the etymology of maldināt ‎(“to mislead, to deceive”)) > “to be confused, bewildered” > (nominalized) “confused person” > “stupid person.” Cognates include Lithuanian mùlkis, Sanskrit मल्वः ‎(malváḥ, “stupid, foolish, unwise”), Ancient Greek βλᾱ́ξ ‎(blā́x, “coward; stubborn; stupid”) (< *mlāk-). A related word is Russian молчать ‎(molčát’, “to be silent”) (< *mъlkēti).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [mûʎcis]

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