Zibbe

Meaning

1. (feminine, regional) ewe or nanny goat
2. (feminine) doe hare or doe rabbit
3. (archaic, dialectal, feminine) bitch, she-dog

Concepts

ewe

sheep

🐑

she-goat

Synonyms

Mutterschaf

Aue

Zicke

Schaf

🐑

Ziege

🐐

Bokkie

Geiß

🐐

Ramme

🐏

Translations

pecora

🐑

ovella

🐑

ooi

brebis

ovis

🐑

oveja

🐑

oveja madre

αμνάδα

αρνάδα

ovelha

προβατίνα

koyun

🐑

نَعْجَة

be

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtsɪbə/

Etymology

Cognate with Middle Low German: tēve

Cognate with Middle Dutch: tēve

Cognate with Dutch: teef

Cognate with Old English: tife

In summary

First attested in the 19th century. Probably from or related to Proto-West Germanic *tibā (“bitch, female dog”), whence also Middle Low German tēve, tiffe, Middle Dutch tēve (13th c., modern Dutch teef), Old English tife.
While the 19th-century attestation is surely belated, the total lack of medieval evidence and the fact that the word is native almost exclusively in East Central German, thus outside the original Old High German territory, make its inheritedness uncertain. One alternative would be a phonetically adapted borrowing from Low German (during the time of dialect mixing in the colonial areas), plausibly under the influence of Middle High German zūpe (“bitch, doe rabbit”). Note that the unadapted form is found in northern East Central German Tiffe (“cur”) as well as Ripuarian Tiff (“bitch”, locally also “doe rabbit”).