pīle

Of onomatopoeic (imitative) origin, as is the case with several other Indo-European bird names, all from Proto-Indo-European onomatopoeic *pī- (reduplicated form *pīp-): Samogitian pīlė (“duck”), Bulgarian пи́ле (píle, “chick, young bird”), Serbo-Croatian pȉle (“chick”), Slovene pípa (“chicken”), Ancient Greek πῑ́πος (pī́pos, “young bird”). The Latvian term, originally probably a dialectal colloquialism, has apparently replaced an earlier Proto-Baltic *antis; compare Lithuanian ántis (“duck”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [pīːlɛ]

pīle f (5th declension)

1. duck (birds of family Anatidae)

   mājas pīle ― domestic (lit. house) duck

   meža pīle ― wild (lit. forest) duck

   pīļu mātīte ― female duck

   pīļu olas ― duck eggs

   pīļu ligzdošanas vietas ― duck nesting areas

   pīļu audzētava ― duck farm

   pīles cepetis ― roast duck

2. (colloquial) false sensationalist rumors

   avīžu pīle ― newspaper sensationalist rumors

   palaist pīli ― to run a sensationalist rumor

• pīlēns

pīle m

1. wound, injury