мелче

Bulgarian

Etymology

By surface analysis, *melь (*melʹ) +‎ -че (-če, diminutive suffix). Related to Romanian melc (“snail”), with no direct cognates in other Slavic languages:

Mladenov: Akin to Proto-Slavic *(s)mъlžь (“mollusc”).
Georgiev (БЕР): Semantically parallel to dial. пасоче (pasoče) < па- (pa-) +‎ сок (sok, “juice”) +‎ -е (-e), слимак (slimak) < Proto-Slavic *slima (“slime”) +‎ -ак (-ak).
Duvernois: Borrowed from Romanian or together with the Romanian lemma - inherited from a Paleo-Balkan substrate.

In either case, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- (“meek, tender, soft”) (attested e.g. in Old Armenian մեղկ (mełk, “soft”)).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key):

Noun

ме́лче • (mélče) n (dialectal)

river snail (grastropod from family Viviparidae)
(figurative) timid, meek, unassertive person or creature

Declension

Declension of ме́лче

	singular	plural
indefinite	ме́лче mélče	ме́лчета mélčeta
definite	ме́лчето mélčeto	ме́лчетата mélčetata

Alternative forms

ме́лчо m (mélčo) (in the figurative sense only)

References

Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1986), “мелче”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 3 (крес¹ – мѝнго¹), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, page 729
Nayden Gerov (1899) “ме́лчё”, in Рѣчникъ на Блъгарскꙑй язꙑкъ. Съ тлъкувание рѣчи-тꙑ на Блъгарскꙑ и на Русскꙑ. [Dictionary of the Bulgarian language]‎ (in Bulgarian), volume 3, Plovdiv: Дружествена печꙗтница "Съгласие.", page 59