paparudă

Romanian

Alternative forms

• papaludă, papalugă, paparugă, păpălugă, păpărugă, păpăruză, păpăruță

Etymology

Borrowed from Bulgarian пеперуда (peperuda), of disputed etymology.

There are at least three possible etymologies:

1. from Proto-Slavic *Perunъ (“god of thunder”);
2. from Paleo-Balkan, akin to Albanian perperonë, Greek περπερούνα (perperoúna), πεπερούδα (peperoúda), Bulgarian пеперуда (peperuda, “butterfly”);
3. from an expressive formation that indicates a kind of small insect (e.g. butterflies, ladybugs, etc.), reflected also in Latin pāpiliō, Italian papiglione, parpaglione, Occitan parpalhon, parpalhòl.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /papaˈrudə/

Noun

paparudă f (plural paparude)

1. (paganism) female figures in Romanian pagan mythology associated with rain-invoking rituals and fertility
2. (paganism) rain-invoking pagan ritual during drought

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	paparudă	paparuda		paparude	paparudele
genitive-dative	paparude	paparudei		paparude	paparudelor
vocative	paparudă, paparudo			paparudelor

Further reading

• paparudă in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)