kelpie

kelpie

English

Alternative forms

• kelpy

Etymology

The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which name derives from the mythological spirit.

Noun

kelpie (plural kelpies)

1. A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.
   • 1828, James Hogg, The Brownie of the Black Haggs

     He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought he was a mule, between a Jew and an ape; some a wizard, some a kelpie, or a fairy, but most of all, that he was really and truly a Brownie.

2. An Australian breed of sheepdog.
   • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador 2014, p. 4:

     Gulls scatter before the blur of my insane kelpie.

Translations

spirit

Azerbaijani: kelpi Bengali: কেলপি (kelpi) Bulgarian: келпи (kelpi) Chinese: Mandarin: 水鬼 (zh) (shuǐguǐ), 凱爾派 (kǎi'ěrpài) Finnish: vetehishevonen, jokihevonen French: kelpie (fr) m Georgian: კელპი (ḳelṗi) German: Kelpie f Indonesian: kelpi Irish: each-uisge m Japanese: ケルピー (kerupī) Korean: 켈피 (kelpi) Russian: ке́лпи (ru) m or f (kélpi) Thai: เคลพี (keelá-pii) Turkish: kelpi Ukrainian: ке́льпі m or f (kélʹpi)

sheepdog

Finnish: australiankelpie French: australian kelpie (fr) m German: Australian Kelpie f Japanese: オーストラリアン・ケルピー (ōsutorarian kerupī) Polish: kelpie australiano m Spanish: kelpie australiano m

Anagrams

• pelike