vilks

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *wilkás, from Proto-Indo-European *wĺ̥kʷos. The word would originally have been a descriptive nickname ('the killer, the plunderer, the destroyer'), the original name having perhaps become a taboo word. Note that similarly formed nicknames for “wolf” still occur in modern Latvian: pelēcis (“gray one”), mežainis (“forest one”), mežavīrs (“forest man”), vecbrālis (“old brother”), etc.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [vìlks]

• Audio:

  (file)

vilks m (1st declension)

1. wolf (esp. Canis lupus)

   pelēkais vilks ― gray wolf

   vilka midzenis ― wolf's lair

   vilku bars ― a pack of wolves

   vilks gaudo, kauc ― the wolf howls

   vilku kaucieni ― wolf howls

   medīt vilkus ― to hunt wolves

   izsalcis kā vilks ― hungry as a wolf

• vilcene
• vilcēns
• vilku mēnesis

vilks

1. third-person singular/plural future indicative of vilkt

• IPA^(key): [vʲɪlks̪]

vil̃ks

1. third-person singular future of vilkti
2. third-person plural future of vilkti