Link Centre Dictionary

kelpie

kel·pie

uncommon

noun

1.

(Scottish folklore) water spirit in the form of a horse that likes to drown its riders

Synonyms
2.

an Australian sheepdog with pointed ears

Origin

Possibly from Scottish Gaelic cailpeach or colpach, meaning "colt"; recorded earliest in a placename (Kelpie hoall, Kirkcudbrightshire) in 17th century. The dog breed, from 1889, derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup) in Victoria, Australia, which in turn derives from the mythological spirit.

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.