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)

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

Synonyms

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

small pigmentation spot on the skin

Afrikaans: sproet
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)
Ingrian: pääsönpisama
Ingush: тӏаьд (tʼäd)
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)

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

Derived terms

freckle up

Related terms

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