mèche
French edit
Etymology 1 edit
Inherited from Old French mesche, via Late Latin *micca or Vulgar Latin *mysca, alteration of Latin myxa (“sebesten tree”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mèche f (plural mèches)
- wick (of candle)
- fuse (of a bomb)
- lock, tuft (of hair); streak (of colour, etc., in hair)
- 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné, section XLVIII:
- Mes cheveux, coupés au hasard, tombaient par mèches sur mes épaules, et l’homme en chapeua à trois cornes les époussetait doucement avec sa grosse main.
- My hair, cut at random, fell in clumps on to my shoulders, and the man in the tricorn hat brushed them away softly with his fat hand.
- (medicine) packing
- drill bit
- (music, lutherie, bowmaking) hair
- cracker, popper, snapper (string tied to the end of a whip)
- (nautical) rudderpost, (rudder) post
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Etymology 2 edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun edit
mèche f (plural mèches)
Further reading edit
- “mèche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from French mèche.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
mèche f (invariable)
- streak (in the hair)
Further reading edit
- mèche in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana