Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Uncertain. Possibly from Proto-Slavic *kopylъ (shoot, sprout; bastard), from *kopàti (to dig, cultivate); compare Ukrainian копил (kopyl) or копиля (kopylja), Bulgarian ко́пеле (kópele). Alternatively an old paleo-Balkan substrate word; compare Romanian copil, Aromanian cochil, Albanian kopil, Byzantine Greek κόπελος (kópelos). First attested in the 17th century.[1]

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kôpile/
  • Hyphenation: ko‧pi‧le

Noun

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kȍpile n (Cyrillic spelling ко̏пиле)

  1. (derogatory) bastard (illegitimate child)

Declension

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Declension of kopile
singular plural
nominative kopile kopilad
genitive kopileta kopiladi
dative kopiletu kopiladi
accusative kopile kopilad
vocative kopile kopiladi
locative kopiletu kopiladi
instrumental kopiletom kopilađu / kopiladi

References

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  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2016) “kopile”, in Dunja Brozović Rončević, Dubravka Ivšić Majić, Tijmen Pronk, editors, Etimološki rječnik hrvatskoga jezika [Etymological dictionary of the Croatian language] (in Serbo-Croatian), volumes I: A—Nj, Zagreb: Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, page 478

Further reading

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  • kopile”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025