Llipa is a word that to me really sounds like what it means – limp, flaccid, or floppy. It can also be used in a non-literal sense to mean that something is weak or feeble, as in the phrase esgus llipa (a feeble excuse).
Antonyms for llipa could include caled (hard) and cryf (strong), since these are both common translations for the best English antonym, firm.
llipa
limp
This adjective gets even weirder when you consider its etymology. Forms of it begin appearing in texts from the late thirteenth century onwards, when it was borrowed from the Middle English lippe (lip).
I guess the idea is that gwefusau (lips) are limp and floppy, but to the best of my knowledge Cymraeg (Welsh) is the only language that has made this rather unorthodox connection. At least llipa and limp look pretty similar, so you can remember the word like that.
Llipa can soft mutate.
Soft mutation
lipa
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
However, the ll -> l soft mutation doesn’t occur in every context where we normally expect a soft mutation (same for rh -> r).
For ansoddeiriau (adjectives) like llipa this is particularly relevant in that adjectives normally mutate after the linking word yn, but not when they begin with ll. However, the mutation should still take place as normal after a feminine noun.
That means that the lettuce is limp is mae’r letysen yn llipa, without the mutation, but a limp lettuce is letysen lipa, with it.
Mae’n llipa fel cadach llestri.
It’s as limp as a dishrag.
Some different variants of llipa exist, like llibin, llibinnaidd and lliprynnaidd. There are also loads of verbal forms for to go limp – which one you’ll hear people using just depends on what part of Wales you’re in:
- llipáu
- llipanu
- llibinio
- llibynna
- lliprynnu
- mynd yn llipa
In English, we often use the phrase to go limpwhen talking about someone’s corff (body). How this is said in Welsh is also something that varies a lot. While some people will use llipa, others prefer llac, a word which is taken from the English slack, and can mean slack, limp, or loose. In parts of the South-West you may hear whip in this sense, which otherwise means quick.
Like in the letysen example, llipa, as with limp in English, can mean that something is droopy.
Of course, letys (lettuce as a plural, or in a general sense) is not the only planhigyn that can be droopy; in fact the llysiau (here herbs, but also commonly vegetables) of clustlys llipa (floppy earwort) and hiclys llipa (lax notchwort) both get their names from the word.
This droopiness could be either in the sense of being gwywedig (withered), or with a less overtly negative connotation. We can use it simply to describe something’s being meddal (soft) and yn hongian (hanging, drooping) – kind of like floppy in English. In this sense it can even seem quite cute, as in the below example:
Mae gan fy nghi glustiau mawr llipa.
My dog has big floppy ears.
Then there is its non-literal usage, to mean weak or feeble. To give an ateb llipa, for example, means that you have evaded someone’s cwestiwn (question). It could also be used, especially in quite poetic writing, to describe someone’s character as weak or spineless.
The last use of llipa I wanted to mention today is a calque from English – calque means it’s just a direct translation, word for word, of a compound word or term. In Welsh, floppy disc is disg llipa… to be honest, I have no idea why they’re called that in English, let alone in Welsh too!
