puca

See also: puçá, puça, and púca

Esperanto

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈput͡sa/
• Rhymes: -ut͡sa
• Hyphenation: pu‧ca

Adjective

puca (accusative singular pucan, plural pucaj, accusative plural pucajn)

1. (literary) tacky
   • Garbhan Macaoidh, "Ho, tempoj! Ho, moroj!", Monato:

     Domaĝe, ke ne nur Eŭropo sed ankaŭ ĉiu parto de nia mondo entuziasme kaj senkritike malfermas siajn pordojn al la plej banalaj, trivialaj, strasaj, pucaj, kiĉaj kaj malutilaj elementoj de tiu iam esperplena nova mondo.

     A pity that not only Europe but also every part of our world enthusiastically and uncritically opens its doors to the most banal, trivial, phony, tacky, kitsch and harmful elements of this once hopeful new world.

   • 2000, Viktor Sapoĵnikov, translator, "Resurekto: Fragmento el la romano de Lev Tolstoj", La ondo de Esperanto:

     surmeto de puca silka robo nudiganta la korpon

     putting on a tacky silk robe exposing the body

   • 2013, Jorge Camacho, "Carlo Minnaja", En la profundo:

     vi varme subtenas[...]
     geparon da blufaj amikoj
     (delire ĉikanaj kaj pucaj)
     sen ajna kritik', malhoneste

     you warmly support[...]
     a mixed pair of sycophantic friends
     (deliriously annoying and tacky)
     without any criticism, dishonestly

Synonyms

• kiĉa

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpˠʊkə/

Noun

puca m (genitive singular puca, nominative plural pucaí)

1. Cois Fharraige form of paca

Declension

Declension of puca (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative puca pucaí vocative a phuca a phucaí genitive puca pucaí dative puca pucaí forms with the definite article singular plural nominative an puca na pucaí genitive an phuca na bpucaí dative leis an bpuca don phuca leis na pucaí

Mutation

Mutated forms of puca

radical	lenition	eclipsis
puca	phuca	bpuca

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “puca”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *pūkō, from Proto-Germanic *pūkô (“a goblin, spook”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pāug(')- (“brilliance, spectre”) or from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to swell, blow”).

Cognate with Old Norse púki (dialectal Swedish puke (“devil”)). Compare also Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle Dutch spooc (“apparition, ghost”) (Dutch spook), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”) (German Spuk).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpuː.kɑ/

Noun

pūca m

1. goblin
2. a mischievous spirit

Declension

Weak:

	singular	plural
nominative	pūca	pūcan
accusative	pūcan	pūcan
genitive	pūcan	pūcena
dative	pūcan	pūcum

Related terms

• pūcel

Descendants

• Middle English: pouke, ppoke, powke, puke
  • English: puck, Puck
    • >? English: pug
• →? Cornish: bocka
  • → English: bucca
• → Welsh: pwca

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pût͡sa/

Noun

pȕca f (Cyrillic spelling пу̏ца)

1. (Kajkavian) girl

   Synonyms: cȕra, djèvōjka

Declension

Declension of puca

	singular	plural
nominative	puca	puce
genitive	puce	puca
dative	puci	pucama
accusative	pucu	puce
vocative	puco	puce
locative	puci	pucama
instrumental	pucom	pucama

Further reading

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

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

puca (Cyrillic spelling пуца)

1. third-person singular present of pucati