pech

See also: Pech and pęch

English

Alternative forms

• paich, pegh

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots pech, apparently of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɛk/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /pɛx/
• Rhymes: -ɛx, -ɛk

Verb

pech (third-person singular simple present pechs, present participle peching, simple past and past participle peched)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) To pant, to struggle for breath.
   • 1913, John Buchan, Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall, page 136:

     An' as they breisted the lang lang hill / The puir horse graned and peched.

   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 321:

     Then Chris saw Bruce, the porter, come in, with the mark on his jaw where his godfather hit him, then Leslie, the smith, paiching and sweating, he dropped his stick with an awful clatter.

   • 1954, Robin Jenkins, The Thistle and the Grail, published 1994, page 225:

     She peched and had to rest often.

   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 207:

     When Graham reached him, however, he felt so exhausted he could not immediately explain; he had to sit on the ground, peching like a seal.

   • 1994, James Kelman, How Late it Was, How Late:

     If he could just stop breathing and listen but he was peching too much from the climb.

Anagrams

• EHCP, ceph, hep C

Breton

Noun

pech m (plural pechoù)

1. trap, booby trap

Chuj

Noun

pech

1. duck

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from German Pech.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛx]

Noun

pech m inan

1. (colloquial) bad luck

   Synonym: smůla

Declension

Declension of pech (velar masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	pech	pechy
genitive	pechu	pechů
dative	pechu	pechům
accusative	pech	pechy
vocative	pechu	pechy
locative	pechu	peších
instrumental	pechem	pechy

Further reading

• “pech”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “pech”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Etymology

From German Pech (“bad luck; pitch, tar”), from Old High German peh, from Latin pīx. Doublet of inherited pek (“pitch”). Also cognate with English pitch.

The sense “breakdown” is a Dutch innovation. It is probably modelled on the word ongeluk, which means both “bad luck, misfortune” and “accident”. Since pech typically denotes a lesser kind of bad luck, it came to be used for a lesser kind of traffic accident too. German uses Panne instead; compare Dutch panne.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛx/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pech
• Rhymes: -ɛx

Noun

pech m (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. bad luck; misfortune
2. breakdown, e.g. of a car

Derived terms

• autopech
• pechgeneratie
• pechvogel

Descendants

• Negerhollands: pech