yrchoun

Middle English

Alternative forms

• yrichon, irchoun, urchoun, hirchoun, irchouon, irchun, hirichoun, urcheon, yrchon, urchun, hyrchyn, urchen, urchon

Etymology

From Old Northern French irechon, herichun, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /(h)irˈt͡ʃuːn/, /ˈ(h)irt͡ʃun/, /ˈ(h)urt͡ʃun/, /-in/

Noun

yrchoun (plural yrchouns)

1. hedgehog (mammal of the family Erinaceidae or similar animal)
   • before 1400, The Romaunt of the Rose, translated from French, partially by Geoffrey Chaucer

     […] Like sharp urchouns his here was growe, / His eyes rede as the fire-glow; […]

2. sea urchin; echinoderm
3. (rare, cooking) A stuffed pig with almond or pastry "spikes".

Descendants

• English: urchin
• Scots: hurcheon

References

• “irchǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• James Orchard Halliwell (1846) “HURCHEON”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. [...] In Two Volumes, volumes I (A–I), London: John Russell Smith, […], →OCLC, page 469, column 2.