avash-avash

Albanian

Alternative forms

• avash avash

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish یواش یواش (yavaş yavaş). By surface analysis, reduplication of avash (“slowly”).

Adverb

avash-avash (colloquial)

1. little by little, very slowly, gradually

   Synonym: dalëngadalë

   Avash-avash bëhet shelegu dash.

   Little strokes fell great oaks. (proverb)

   (literally, “Little by little the lamb becomes a ram.”)

References

• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[1], 1980, page 76a
• Bufli, G., Rocchi, L. (2021) “javash”, in A historical-etymological dictionary of Turkisms in Albanian (1555–1954), Trieste: Edizioni Università di Trieste, page 227