tache

See also: 'tache, taché, tâche, tâché, Tache, Taché, and Tâche

English

Etymology 1

Clipping of moustache or mustache.

Alternative forms

• tash (misspelling)
• 'tache

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɑːʃ/, Rhymes: -ɑːʃ

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /tæʃ/, Rhymes: -æʃ

Noun

tache (plural taches)

1. (informal) Moustache, mustache.

Synonyms

• stache, 'stache

Etymology 2

From French tache (“a spot”). See tetchy.

Alternative forms

• tatch

Noun

tache (plural taches)

1. (now rare) A spot, stain, or blemish.
   • 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC:

     the herynge or seynge of any vice or euyl tache

   • 1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 95:

     Alone I cared for our mother who did little else but stare at taches on floor and ceiling.

Etymology 3

See tack (“a kind of nail”).

Noun

tache (plural taches)

1. Something used for taking hold or holding; a catch; a loop; a button.
   • 1611, King James Bible, “xxvi.vi”, in Exodus‎, Barker edition:

     And thou shalt make fiftie taches of gold, and couple the curtaines together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

Anagrams

• Teach, chate, cheat, he-cat, teach, theca

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French tache, from Old French tache, taiche, taje (“mark, spot, stain”), from Vulgar Latin *tacca, *tecca, from Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “mark, sign”), from Proto-Germanic *taiknaz, *taikną (“sign, mark”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”). Influenced by forms related to Frankish *stakjan, *stakkijan (“to stick, attach”) and Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌺𐍃 (staks, “mark”). See attacher. For levelling and shortening of diphthong ai in taikns compare Old French hanter, hangart, etc. Cognate with Old High German zeihhan (“sign, symbol, feature”), Old English tācn (“sign, marker”). More at token.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taʃ/

• Audio:

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Homophone: tâche (France)
• Rhymes: -aʃ

Noun

tache f (plural taches)

1. blot, stain or smear
2. spot; more or less stain-like mark of a different color
3. (skin) blotch, mark
4. moral depravation
5. annoying or despicable person

Derived terms

• être tache
• faire tache
• faire tache d'encre
• faire tache d'huile
• taché
• tache de naissance
• tache de rousseur
• tache de vin
• tache solaire
• tacheté

Related terms

• tacher
• tacheter

Further reading

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

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French attacher (“attach”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /taʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

tache

1. attach

Old French

Alternative forms

• teche, tesche, taiche, taje

Etymology

Uncertain. Two origins are proposed:

• From Vulgar Latin *tacca, *tecca, from Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “mark, sign”), from Proto-Germanic *taiknaz, *taikną (“sign, mark”).
• From the verb tachier, from Latin taxāre (“to feel, touch”).

Noun

tache oblique singular, f (oblique plural taches, nominative singular tache, nominative plural taches)

1. mark; stain

Descendants

• Middle French: taiche
  • French: tache
• → Middle English: tach, tache, tasch, tasche, tasshe
  • English: tache, tatch
  • Scots: tache
  • ⇒? English: tetchy

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tache)

Portuguese

Verb

tache

1. inflection of tachar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtat͡ʃe/ [ˈt̪a.t͡ʃe]
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Syllabification: ta‧che

Etymology 1

Deverbal from tachar.

Noun

tache m (plural taches)

1. (Mexico) a line or lines written to cross out something

Etymology 2

Verb

tache

1. inflection of tachar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “tache”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024