selkie - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
From Scots selkie fowk (“seal folk”).
selkie (plural selkies)
mythological creature
- Chinese:
- Danish: sælkvinde c
- Faroese: kópakona f
- French: selkie (fr) m or f, phoque-garou (fr) m
- German: Selkie
- Irish: maighdean mhara f, banrón m, leanbh-rón m
- Japanese: セルキー (serukī)
- Korean: 셀키 (selki)
- Manx: moidyn varrey f
- Russian: шелки (šelki), селки (selki)
- Scots: (collectively) selkie fowk, (male) silkie man, (female) selkie-wife
- Scottish Gaelic: maighdeann-mhara f, (rare) maighdeann-ròin f
selkie (plural selkies)
- diminutive of selch (“common seal, grey seal”)
- selkie-wife (“female selkie, mermaid”, literally “female seal”)
- selkie folk (“selkie”, literally “seal people”)
- silkie man (“male selkie”, literally “male seal”)
- → English: selkie
- “selkie” under “selch, n., v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 12 June 2024, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- Thos. Edmondston, F.R.S.L., F.A.S.L. (1866) “selkie”, in An Etymological Glossary of the Shetland & Orkney Dialect, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 99