Shtrigë and lugat: Albanian monsters that never left the language

A moth bumps against the lamp on an October night. Ask an Albanian dictionary what to call it, and one possible answer is shtrigë. That is also the word for the witch of folk belief, and for a woman someone really doesn't like. Halloween has its witches and walking dead. Albanian has its own, and they never quite left the language.

Shtriga: witch, moth, insult

In folk belief, the shtrigë (definite form: shtriga) is imagined as a wicked, very ugly old woman who eats living people and does harm through magic. Dictionaries also list two less ghostly meanings:

• a night moth that slips into beehives after dark to eat honey, or circles a lamp;
• an insult for a spiteful woman, especially a tight-fisted, black-hearted one.

Lugati: the dead who come back

A lugat (definite form: lugati, plural: lugetër) is a spiteful person who rises from the grave after death and terrorises the living. Some dictionaries add "werewolf". Used figuratively, it means a very ugly or spiteful person. You may also see the spelling llugat.

Both words are genuinely rude when aimed at a person. Learn to recognise them, and don't try them out on your neighbours.

A curse with grammar inside

E ngrënçin shtrigat! means "May the witches eat him/her!" Ngrënçin comes from ha (to eat). It uses the same wish form, the optative, as E gëzofsh!: a verb shaped to say "may it happen". Here the wish is plural because the witches (shtrigat) do the eating. E means him or her.

Small challenge: which shtrigë?

1. Shtriga hyri natën në koshere.
2. Në përrallë, shtriga hante njerëz.
3. Mos i kërko asgjë asaj shtrige!

Answers:

1. The moth. Natën (at night) and koshere (beehive) give it away: "The shtrigë got into the hive at night."
2. The witch. Përrallë (folktale) and hante njerëz (ate people) put us in folklore.
3. The insult. "Don't ask that shtrigë for anything!" points at a real, stingy woman.

Takeaway: when you meet shtrigë or lugat, check the context. It could be a folktale, a moth, or someone being called a monster.