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
• freckleless
• frecklesome
• frecklish
• smelly freckle

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), efelide (it) f Japanese: 雀斑 (ja) (そばかす, sobakasu), そばかす (ja) (sobakasu) Kalmyk: севг (sevg), заарг (zaarg) 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, efélide (es) f, lentigo m 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), ластови́нка f (lastovýnka) 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.

Derived terms

• freckle up

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