English Explanatory Dictionary

kelpie

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.
  2. An Australian breed of sheepdog.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kelpie.wav

Word forms

kelpie kelpies kelpy

Etymology

Possibly from Scottish Gaelic cailpeach or colpach, meaning "colt". The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which in turn derives from the mythological spirit.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on K Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary