kelpie

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

The dog breed derives from the name shared by the first two breeding bitches (dam and pup), which name derives from the mythological spirit.

Noun

kelpie (plural kelpies)

  1. A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.
    • 1828, James Hogg, The Brownie of the Black Haggs:
      He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought he was a mule, between a Jew and an ape; some a wizard, some a kelpie, or a fairy, but most of all, that he was really and truly a Brownie.
  2. An Australian breed of sheepdog.
    • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 4:
      Gulls scatter before the blur of my insane kelpie.

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