gâche

See also: gache, gaché, and gâché

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Norman gâche.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡɒʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɒʃ
• Homophone: gosh

Noun

gâche (countable and uncountable, plural gâches)

1. (Guernsey) A type of traditional fruitcake. (Often as Guernsey gâche.)
   • 1938, National Geographic, volume LXXIII:

     A huge Guernsey gache, which is a sort of fruit cake, was flanked by plates and baskets of figs, grapes, nectarines, peaches, and raspberries.

   • 1974, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 48:

     She said I could go on the Sunday afternoon, and she would make a gâche I could take to him.

   • 1980, John McCormack, The Guernsey House:

     Baking of bread, gâche – a sort of fruit loaf rather like the Welsh bara brith – and Guernsey biscuits – a kind of bread bun – would be done once a week […]

   • 2011, Sandra Clayton, Dolphins Under My Bed:

     It is too hot to eat much, so we lunch on bananas and the gache loaf bought the previous day, and set off for Guernsey at half past one.

Anagrams

• geach

French

Etymology 1

From Middle French gache (“a mason's tool for mixing, spatula, trowel”), from Old French gaiche (“oar, rowing”), derivative of gaschier (“to wash, soak”), from Old Frankish *waskan, *wascōn (“to wash, bathe”), from Proto-Germanic *waskaną (“to wash”). More at gâcher, wash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaʃ/, /ɡɑʃ/

Noun

gâche f (plural gâches)

1. oar
2. trowel

Etymology 2

From Middle French gache, from Old French gaiche, gasche (“spike”), from Old Frankish *gaspia (“buckle, loop”) for *gapsia, *gaupsia, probably allied to Proto-Germanic *gaupaz (“crooked, bent apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *gheub-, *gheubh- (“to bend, bend over, move”). Cognate with Dutch gesp, gespe (“buckle, clasp, loop, hook”), Low German gaspe, gespe, göspe (“loop, hook”), Old English gēap (“bent, crooked, curved, open, wide, extensive”). More at gap, gape, gaff.

Noun

gâche f (plural gâches)

1. (mechanical, of a door) keeper, strike

Etymology 3

Inflected forms.

Verb

gâche

1. inflection of gâcher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

gâche f (plural gâches)

1. (regional, Vendée) A type of local brioche flavoured with orange.
2. (regional, Normandy, Brittany) A type of flat, rounded local bread

Further reading

• “gâche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Noun

gâche f (plural gâches)

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) cake
   • 1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore‎^[1], page 519:

     I' peut mànger sa gâche dorâïe des daeux bords.

     He can eat his cake buttered on both sides.

2. (Guernsey) gâche
   • 2006, Peggy Collenette, “D'la gâche de Guernési”, in P'tites Lures Guernésiaises, Cromwell Press, published 2006, page 20:

     La vieille Louise était embarrassaïe à faire sa pâte pour sa gâche, et v'là daon aen tappe à l'hus.

     Old Louise was busy making her dough for her gâche, and there was a knock at the door.

Derived terms

• gâche à chucre (“sugar-iced cake”)
• gâche à corînthe (“currant cake”)
• gâche dé lait d'beurre (“scone”)
• gâche des neuches (“wedding cake”)
• gâche fouôrrée (“mincemeat cake”)
• gâche mêlée, gâche à pommes (“apple cake”)
• p'tite gâche (“cupcake”)

 

Poitevin-Saintongeais

Noun

gâche

1. a variant of the galette pastry

References

• Jônain, Pierre. Dictionnaire du patois Saintongeais. 1869. Part 200.