freckle

English

Etymology

From Middle English freken, frekel, from Old Norse freknur pl (compare Faroese frøknur, Swedish fräknar, Danish fregner), s-less variant of Old English sprecel from Proto-Germanic *sprekalą (“freckle”) (compare dialectal Norwegian sprekla, Middle High German spreckel), from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g- (“to strew, sprinkle”). Cognate with Albanian fruth (“measles”). More at spark. Related to spry, sprack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛkəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkəl

Noun

freckle (plural freckles)

1. A small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin.

   Steve has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on his cheeks and nose.

   • c. 1920s-1930s, Charlotte Druitt Cole, Runaway Jane:

     The rabbits came out from their burrows to peep, / The wind whispered, "Hush! little Jane's gone to sleep!" / And the spiders came spinning a curtain of lace, / Lest the sun should make freckles on Jane's pretty face.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:

     Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

2. Any small spot or discoloration.
3. (Australia) A small sweet consisting of a flattish mound of chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands.
4. (Australia, slang) The anus.

Synonyms

• ephelis
• lentigo

Coordinate terms

• beauty mark
• dirt
• sun kiss

Derived terms

• a hair past a freckle
• banana freckle
• smelly freckle

 

Translations

small pigmentation spot on the skin

• Arabic: نَمَش m pl (namaš)

  Egyptian Arabic: نمش m pl (namaš)

  Tunisian Arabic: نمش (nmæċ)

• Armenian: պեպեն (hy) (pepen)
• Azerbaijani: çil (az)
• Bashkir: һипкел (hipkel)
• Basque: orin
• Belarusian: вясну́шка f (vjasnúška)
• Bulgarian: луничка f (lunička)
• Carpathian Rusyn: пі́стріґ m (pístrig)
• Catalan: piga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雀斑 (zh) (quèbān), 斑點／斑点 (zh) (bāndiǎn)

• Coptic: ⲁⲣϣⲁⲛ m (aršan)
• Crimean Tatar: sepkil
• Czech: piha (cs) f
• Danish: fregne (da) c
• Dutch: sproet (nl) c
• Esperanto: lentugo
• Estonian: tedretähn, tedretäht
• Faroese: frøkna f
• Finnish: kesakko (fi), pisama (fi), teerenpilkku (fi)
• French: tache de rousseur (fr) f
• Gagauz: çil
• Galician: lentixa (gl) f, lantinxa f, marxa (gl) f, penca (gl) f
• Georgian: ჭორფლი (č̣orpli)
• German: Sommersprosse (de) f
• Greek: φακίδα (el) f (fakída)

  Ancient: ἔφηλις f (éphēlis)

• Hebrew: נמש (he) m (nemesh)
• Hungarian: szeplő (hu)
• Icelandic: frekna f
• Ido: lentigino (io)
• Indonesian: bintik (id)
• Irish: breicne f
• Italian: lentiggine (it)
• Japanese: 雀斑 (ja) (そばかす, sobakasu), そばかす (ja) (sobakasu)
• Kalmyk: севг (sevg)
• Kazakh: секпіл (sekpıl)
• Khmer: អាចម៍រុយ (ʼac ruy)
• Korean: 주근깨 (ko) (jugeunkkae)
• Kyrgyz: сепкил (ky) (sepkil)
• Latin: lentigo f, lenticula f
• Latvian: vasaras raibums m
• Lithuanian: strazdana f
• Luxembourgish: Speechelen
• Macedonian: лу́ничка f (lúnička)
• Manchu: ᠮᡝᡵᠰᡝᠨ (mersen)
• Mongolian: сэвх (mn) (sevx)
• Nogai: сепкил (sepkil)
• Norman: tav'lîn m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fregne (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: frekne f

• Occitan: tessèla (oc) f
• Ottoman Turkish: چل (çyl)
• Persian: کک و مک (kak-o-mak)
• Polish: pieg (pl) m
• Portuguese: sarda (pt)
• Romanian: pistrui (ro) m
• Russian: весну́шка (ru) f (vesnúška)
• Scottish Gaelic: breac-sheunain
• Serbo-Croatian: пега, пјега

  Roman: pega (sh) f, pjega (sh) f

• Slovak: peha f
• Slovene: pega (sl) f
• Spanish: peca (es) f
• Swedish: fräkne (sv) c
• Tagalog: pekas
• Tatar: сипкел (tt) (sipkel)
• Thai: กระ (th) (grà)
• Tibetan: གྲོ་ཐིག (gro thig), སྨེ་ཐིག (sme thig)
• Turkish: çil (tr)
• Turkmen: sepgil
• Tuvan: секпил (sekpil)
• Ukrainian: весня́нка f (vesnjánka)
• Uzbek: sepkil (uz)
• Vietnamese: tàn nhang (vi)
• Volapük: feelid (vo)
• Welsh: brych (cy) m, sbot haf m
• Yakut: эбир (ebir)

any small spot

• Finnish: täplä (fi), pilkku (fi)
• Galician: marxa (gl) f
• German: Fleckchen (de) n

Verb

freckle (third-person singular simple present freckles, present participle freckling, simple past and past participle freckled)

1. (transitive) To cover with freckles.
2. (intransitive) To become covered with freckles.

Related terms

• freckled
• freckleface
• freckly

Translations

cover with freckles

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (no such verb exists) 有雀斑 (yǒu quèbān), 長雀斑, 长雀斑 (zhǎng quèbān)

• Finnish: pisamoittaa (skin); täplittää (fi) (anything else)
• Ido: lentiginigar (io)
• Portuguese: cobrir de sardas

become covered with freckles

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (no such verb exists) 有雀斑 (yǒu quèbān), 長雀斑, 长雀斑 (zhǎng quèbān)

• Finnish: pisamoitua (skin); täplittyä (anything else)
• Ido: lentigineskar (io)
• Spanish: tener peca
• Tibetan: གྲོ་ཐིག་ཐོན (gro thig thon)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Georgian: ^{(please verify)} დაჭორფვლა (dač̣orpvla)
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} pehavieť, ^{(please verify)} opehavieť, ^{(please verify)} spehavieť

Anagrams

• flecker