muļķis

Latvian

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 βλάξ (blā́x, “coward; stubborn; stupid”) (< *mlāk-). A related word is Russian молчать (molčát’, “to be silent”) (< *mъlkēti).

Pronunciation

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

Declension

declension of muļķis

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	muļķis	muļķi
accusative (akuzatīvs)	muļķi	muļķus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	muļķa	muļķu
dative (datīvs)	muļķim	muļķiem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	muļķi	muļķiem
locative (lokatīvs)	muļķī	muļķos
vocative (vokatīvs)	muļķi	muļķi

Synonyms

• duraks
• idiots
• neprātis
• stulbenis

Derived terms

• muļķība
• muļķīgs

References