shlligë

Albanian

Alternative forms

• shëlligë

Etymology

Either from a tabooistic description derived from lig, or from *lligë, from Proto-Albanian *sligā, the same Indo-European root of Old Irish selige (“turtle”) and German schleichen (“to crawl”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyg-, *sleyǵ- (“to glide, smooth, spread”).

Noun

shlligë f (plural shllíga, definite shllíga, definite plural shllígat)

1. viper, horned viper

   Synonyms: rrëshajë, nepërkë

2. (mythology, folklore) kuçedër offspring, dragon hatchling
3. (figurative) evil and spiteful wooman

Related terms

• lig

Further reading

• “shlligë”, in FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[1] (in Albanian), 1980
• “shlligë”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• Mann, S. E. (1948) “shlligë”, in An Historical Albanian–English Dictionary, London: Longmans, Green & Co., page 487