cirslis

Latvian

Cirslis

Alternative forms

• (dialectal forms) cirsnis, cirksnis, cirkste

Etymology

Derived from cirst (“to cut, to hew, to chop”), from Proto-Baltic *kir-, from Proto-Indo-European *ker-, *kr̥- (“to cut”). The semantic evolution was probably “to cut” > “to chop”, also “to gnaw, to bite, to pierce”, whence cirslis “gnawer”. Cognates include Lithuanian kar̃stas, kertùkas, kirstukas, Ukrainian черте́ц (čertéc).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [tsìɾslis]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cirslis m (2nd declension)

1. shrew (mammal sp.)

   ūdens cirslis ― water shrew

   mazais cirslis ― small shrew

   ciršļa ala ― shrew burrow

Declension

Declension of cirslis (2nd declension)

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	cirslis	ciršļi
accusative (akuzatīvs)	cirsli	ciršļus
genitive (ģenitīvs)	ciršļa	ciršļu
dative (datīvs)	cirslim	ciršļiem
instrumental (instrumentālis)	cirsli	ciršļiem
locative (lokatīvs)	cirslī	ciršļos
vocative (vokatīvs)	cirsli	ciršļi