# Female for 'Jelonek'



## oetzi

Hi friends.
How would you indicate the female of a fawn (jelonek) in polish? Is there a female term or a compound expression such as "she-fawn" in English?
Dziękuję.


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## NotNow

The word you're looking for may be _sarenka_.


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## Thomas1

Technically it's sarnię. Sarenka is a diminutive of sarna, but I'm quite sure many Poles (including yours truly) would use it to mean sarnię, perhaps adding "mała".

Just in case you're interested: hind/doe is łania.

EDIT: Come to think of it: sarna may be a completely different animal. Jeleń is an animal we tend to think of as a male and sarna as a female. But jeleń may nevertheless encompass females called łanie. The male of jeleń is called byk. And the young is called cielak (this is masculine in gender and as it often happens may be used for both sexes), so cielica should be it. Well, there you go I'm no expert here, but this is how I understand it. Perhaps someone will chime in and shed some light on it.


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## vianie

Thomas1 said:


> The male of jeleń is called byk.



Could this be applied for any other male from ungulate tribe?


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## BezierCurve

Not really (I don't think it can be applied for a horse, for an example), but on the other hand it can describe other male mammals, like sea lions.


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## oetzi

Thorough and exhaustive ! 
Thanks everybody
Dobrego dnia


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## robin74

Thomas1 said:


> EDIT: Come to think of it: sarna may be a completely different animal.



Sarna is a completely different animal.

While many Poles would indeed think of jeleń as male and sarna as female, it's just plainly incorrect. These are two different species. Jeleń is _Cervus elaphus, _with female called łania and male called byk (or more commonly simply jeleń). Sarna is _Capreolus capreolus_, with male called kozioł and female called koza (or, again, more commonly simply sarna).

As for jelonek, I'm just not sure which animal oetzi means. Both species (jeleń and sarna) are examples of deer. Sarna, koza, łania, krowa or klępa might all be correct, depending on which species we mean.


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## Thomas1

robin74 said:


> [...]
> As for jelonek, I'm just not sure which animal oetzi means. Both species (jeleń and sarna) are examples of deer. Sarna, koza, łania, krowa or klępa might all be correct, depending on which species we mean.


Perhaps this is what is sought after by Oetzi; however by fown I understand a young, and each of those you mention mean to me a mature specimen. So to be more exact I'd add "młoda" before each of them or, if possible, use a relevant term which is more concise.


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## oetzi

Well, I'm sorry I sparked off a diatribe about animal classification: this was certainly not my intention ....   I simply needed to know how the female of a _*young deer*_ (i.e. a _*fawn*_) is called in Polish. I looked up "*fawn*" in the WR dictionary, and it is translated as "*jelonek*". Now I'm no zoologist, so I don't now about the different species you mention. By the way, the WR and LING.PL dictionaries translate "*byk*" as "*bull*", which is a completely different animal, i.e. the male of the cow, and that I know has nothing to do with a deer ...
Anyway, I think Sarenka will do fine.
Thanks again everybody.


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## Ben Jamin

oetzi said:


> Well, I'm sorry I sparked off a diatribe about animal classification: this was certainly not my intention ....  I simply needed to know how the female of a _*young deer*_ (i.e. a _*fawn*_) is called in Polish. I looked up "*fawn*" in the WR dictionary, and it is translated as "*jelonek*". Now I'm no zoologist, so I don't now about the different species you mention. By the way, the WR and LING.PL dictionaries translate "*byk*" as "*bull*", which is a completely different animal, i.e. the male of the cow, and that I know has nothing to do with a deer ...
> Anyway, I think Sarenka will do fine.
> Thanks again everybody.


 
Sorry, you are on a false track, misguided by poor dictionaries, and imprecise English terminology  (deer in English means several different species)*. Jelonek is definitely a young Jeleń, that is Red Deer (cervus elaphus). I have never heard a word denoting a female jelonek, and there probably exists none (though the hunters have incredibly many words unknown to general public). The most plausible term for me is _m__łoda łania_ (a young hind). Sarna is a *Roe Deer* (_Capreolus capreolus)_ and _sarenka_ is a young _sarna_ (meaning both female and male), but if you want to denote precisely a young male Roe Deer you may use the word _sarniuk_.
__ 
__ 
**"Deer* are the ruminant mammals forming the family *Cervidae*."


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## Ben Jamin

oetzi said:


> By the way, the WR and LING.PL dictionaries translate "*byk*" as "*bull*", which is a completely different animal, i.e. the male of the cow, and that I know has nothing to do with a deer ...
> Anyway, I think Sarenka will do fine.
> Thanks again everybody.


 
_Byk_ is not an animal species in Polish, but a male of a number of large ruminants, like the domestic cow, red deer, elk, even a giraffe and and an elephant (not a ruminant). The males of some smaller ruminants, like roe deer, are called _kozioł_ (literally a he-goat, or buck), but again this name can be used with many different species, like antelopes.
To end the reasoning a quote from the English Wikipedia: "[small] _Male __deer__ and __goats__ are referred to as bucks (larger species of male deer such as __elk__ or __moose__ are called __bulls__)"._


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