souche

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French souche, from Old French çoche, from Vulgar Latin *tsucca, from Gaulish *tsukka, from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz (“stock; stump”). Cognate with Catalan and Spanish soca, Sicilian zuccu. More at English stock.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suʃ/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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Noun

souche f (plural souches)

1. stump (of a tree)
2. (viral) strain

   une souche virale inédite a fait au minimum vingt morts

   an unknown viral strain has caused at least twenty deaths

3. (by extension, linguistics) root

   un mot de souche latine ― a word originating in Latin

4. (by extension, genealogy) origin

   un Américain de souche ― someone of American origin

5. (by extension, genetics) founder

Derived terms

• cellule souche
• de souche
• dormir comme une souche
• faire souche
• mot souche
• souchet

Further reading

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