kopile

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly from Proto-Slavic *kopylъ (“shoot, sprout; bastard”), from *kopàti (“to dig, cultivate”); compare Ukrainian копил (kopyl) or копиля (kopylja), Bulgarian ко́пеле (kópele). Alternatively an old paleo-Balkan substrate word; compare Romanian copil, Aromanian cochil, Albanian kopil, Byzantine Greek κόπελος (kópelos). First attested in the 17th century.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kôpile/
• Hyphenation: ko‧pi‧le

Noun

kȍpile n (Cyrillic spelling ко̏пиле)

1. (derogatory) bastard (illegitimate child)

Declension

	singular	plural
nominative	kopile	kopilad
genitive	kopileta	kopiladi
dative	kopiletu	kopiladi
accusative	kopile	kopilad
vocative	kopile	kopiladi
locative	kopiletu	kopiladi
instrumental	kopiletom	kopilađu / kopiladi

Declension of kopile

References

1. Matasović, Ranko (2016) “kopile”, in Dunja Brozović Rončević, Dubravka Ivšić Majić, Tijmen Pronk, editors, Etimološki rječnik hrvatskoga jezika [Etymological dictionary of the Croatian language] (in Serbo-Croatian), volumes I: A—Nj, Zagreb: Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje, page 478

Further reading

• “kopile”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025