cachou

English

Etymology

From French cachou, from Portuguese cachu, from Malay kacu (“type of acacia”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæʃuː/
• Homophone: cashew

Noun

cachou (plural cachous)

1. A sweet eaten to sweeten the breath.
   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 20:

     Dante gave him a cachou every time he brought her a piece of tissue paper.

   • 1955, Patrick White, chapter 19, in The Tree of Man‎^[1], New York: Viking, page 347:

     But her husband, frowning, remembered those little sweets, or cachous, scented with something like violet, a synthetic smell, that had drifted on the more irritating afternoons above the smells of the sealing wax and ink.

2. A small metallic ball used as edible decoration on cakes etc.

Synonyms

• catechu

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kaˈʃo(w)/ [kaˈʃo(ʊ̯)]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈʃo(w)/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈʃo(w)/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈt͡ʃow/
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /kɐˈʃo/

Verb

cachou

1. third-person singular preterite indicative of cachar