kacagjel
Albanian
Etymology
From kaca- + gjel (“rooster, cock”).[1][2] Given that boastfulness is a characteristic usually ascribed to roosters rather than ants, it seems that noun sense 2 developed parallelly from the original meaning of gjel rather than from noun sense 1.
Noun
kacagjel m (plural kacagjela, definite kacagjeli)
- large dark-red ant. carpenter ant (Camponotus spp.)
- Synonym: kaposh
- (derogatory) haughty, bumptious person
- Synonym: mburravec
Declension
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | kacagjel | kacagjeli | kacagjela | kacagjelat |
| accusative | kacagjelin | |||
| dative | kacagjeli | kacagjelit | kacagjelave | kacagjelave |
| ablative | kacagjelash | |||
Derived terms
- kacagjelohem
- kacagjelthi
Adverb
kacagjel
- (derogatory) haughtily, bumptiously
- Synonym: kacagjelthi
- rri kacagjel ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
- ecën kacagjel ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
References
- ^ Oryol, Vladimir E. (1998), “kacagjel”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden; Boston; Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 161
- ^ Krimpas, P. G. (2021), “On the Modern Greek Origin of the Albanian KACA-prefixoids”, in Porta Balkanica, →ISSN, page 6
Further reading
- “kacagjel”, in FMGJSH: Fjalor i madh i gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian), 2026