South Slavic zezati (se): a lexicographic orphan or a legitimate lemma

Abstract

This article deals with the verb zezati se ‘to kid around (neutrally or rudely)’, obsolete regional ‘to stir, jerk, wriggle; fuck, etc.’ and its derivatives, whose attestations in Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian dictionaries are subjected to semantic classification. Reviewing its onomasiological parallels, Slavic counterparts, and the etymology leads to the proposal that, until more Slavic data are obtained, the etymology of this onomatopoeic word family should be considered uncertain.