slepkava

See also: slepkavā

Latvian

Etymology

An old compound, from the stem of slepens (“secret”) or slepus (“secretly, stealthily”), and the stem of kaut (“to slaughter, to kill in battle”), nominalized in the sense of 'slaughterer', 'killer'.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [slæpkava]

Noun

slepkava m or f (4th declension)

1. killer, murderer (a person who has committed murder, who has illegally killed someone)

   pēc nožņaugšanas slepkava atstājis līķi turpat ratos ― after strangulation the murderer left a dead body right there, in the horse-drawn carriage

   redzot, ka esesietis nošauj cilvēku no koncentrācijas nometnes, kautrīgais, bērnišķīgais Vīze naidā metas uz slepkavu ― seeing that the SS's shot people from the concentration camp, the shy, childish Vīze in hatred threw himself on the murderer

2. (by extension) a hitman

Usage notes

The term slepkava is ambigenous. It is masculine when it refers to males and feminine when it refers to females. It is, however, always declined as a feminine noun, with the exception of its dative singular form, which is slepkavam when it refers to a male and slepkavai when it refers to a female.

Declension

Declension of slepkava (4th declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	slepkava	slepkavas
accusative (akuzatīvs)	slepkavu	slepkavas
genitive (ģenitīvs)	slepkavas	slepkavu
dative (datīvs)	slepkavam, slepkavai	slepkavām
instrumental (instrumentālis)	slepkavu	slepkavām
locative (lokatīvs)	slepkavā	slepkavās
vocative (vokatīvs)	slepkava	slepkavas

Derived terms

• slepkavība
• slepkavīgs
• slepkavot

Related terms

• slepens
• slēpt
• slepus, slēpu