louche

See also: louché

English

WOTD – 22 August 2016

A glass of absinthe which has been louched (verb sense) with water

Etymology

Borrowed from French louche.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /luːʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /luʃ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʃ

Adjective

louche (comparative loucher, superlative louchest)

1. Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
   • 2012 February 25, “The other half lives: The transatlantic appeal of the British ruling classes”, in The Economist‎^[1], archived from the original on 28 April 2016:

     Upstairs Downstairs hosts the Kennedys and Wallis Simpson (these days, in British culture, the archetypal louche American).

   • 2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The A.V. Club‎^[2], archived from the original on 24 May 2016:

     Ever since X-Men: First Class set the series' clock back a few decades and installed Michael Fassbender's moody Magneto and James McAvoy's louche Charles Xavier as replacements for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's chess-playing pappies, the big-screen X-Men's central conflict—Xavier's Booker T. Washington-esque School For Gifted Youngsters vs. a rogue's gallery of evil mutants, crew cuts, and politicos—has gotten a lot murkier.

2. Not reputable or decent.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 70, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     My uncle knows something about that fellow—Clavering knows something about him. There’s something louche regarding him.

   • 1888, Henry James, “The Aspern Papers”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume LXI, Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Co., →OCLC, page 304:

     The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!

3. Unconventional and slightly disreputable in an attractive manner; raffish, rakish.
   • 2007 September 9, Guy Trebay, “Who will pull together the collections?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], archived from the original on 3 November 2015:

     Anyone inside the business can also tell you that without Carine Roitfeld's louche sexy styling Tom Ford's Gucci might easily have come off looking like a high-end Club Monaco.

Derived terms

• louchely
• loucheness

Noun

louche

1. A dubious or disreputable person or thing
   • 2003, Barbara Cleverly, Ragtime in Simla, Robinson, →ISBN:

     'That's right,' Joe smiled. 'Loafing about on the Mall with the louche of the town. And, speaking of the louche of the town, don't we have an appointment to interview one or two of them this morning?'

   • 2007, Tom Treece, But What Do I Know?, Xulon Press, →ISBN:

     I'm outraged this louche has since fathered two children with another woman and that after all this questionable, nefarious behavior, Greer continues to see no conflict of interest in him being Terd's guardian.

   • 2012, Bill Cain, Dove of War, AuthorHouse, →ISBN:

     "Rooster, you say? He seems to always appear at unusual times and locations. He strikes me as something of a legerdemain. Let's hope he is no louche when it comes to his role in all of this.

Verb

louche (third-person singular simple present louches, present participle louching, simple past and past participle louched)

1. (transitive) To make (an alcoholic beverage, e.g. absinthe or ouzo) cloudy by mixing it with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect.

   Certain anise-flavored drinks have developed a mystique based on the exotic appearance of louching.

   • 2010, Paul Owens, Paul Nathan, Dave Herlong, The Little Green Book of Absinthe: An Essential Companion with Lore, Trivia, and Classic and Contemporary Cocktails, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, →ISBN:

     In distillation, the first few liters of absinthe to come out of the still are called the head; the last few liters are the tail. The head and tail don't have enough alcohol to keep the oils in suspension, so the absinthe comes out of the still louched.

   • 2012, Heather E. Hutsell, chapter 1, in Blood Mettle, [s.l.]: Fatty Baby Cat Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:

     I found a little corner to stand in and pretended to sip my own louched absinthe.

   • 2015, Jason Sizemore, For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher, Lexington, Ky.: Apex Publishers, →ISBN:

     Ah, Mr. Sizemore, the green fairy is best prepared carefully and slowly to appreciate its full potential. Simply fill the fountain with iced water, place your glass of absinthe below the spigot with a single sugar cube placed over a slotted spoon and adjust the tap to your desired flow. The cold water will gradually dissolve the sugar and mix with the absinthe in a process known as louching.

Translations

to become cloudy when mixed with water

• Polish: mętnieć impf, zmętnieć pf

Further reading

• Ouzo effect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French louche, from Latin lusca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlu.ʃə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lou‧che

Adjective

louche (comparative loucher, superlative meest louche or louchest)

1. seedy, fishy, shady

   Synonym: onguur

Declension

Declension of louche
uninflected	louche
inflected	louche
comparative	loucher
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		louche	loucher	het louchest het loucheste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	louche	louchere	loucheste
	n. sing.	louche	loucher	loucheste
	plural	louche	louchere	loucheste
definite		louche	louchere	loucheste
partitive		louches	louchers	—

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /luʃ/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʃ

Etymology 1

From Old French lousche, from Latin lusca, feminine of luscus (“one-eyed”) ( > Old French lois). Cognate in particular with Italian losco, with whom it shares the semantic shift to describe a shady individual.

Adjective

louche (plural louches)

1. (dated) cross-eyed
2. (by extension) cloudy; obscure
3. (figuratively) shady; dubious; seedy; shifty

Descendants

• → Dutch: louche
• → English: louche

Noun

louche m (plural louches)

1. (in a liquid) cloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles

Etymology 2

A dialectal (Norman-Picard) form of Old French louce, loce, from Old Frankish *lōtija, from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō. Cognate with Dutch loet (“a tool to scrape or shovel”). More at loot.

Noun

louche f (plural louches)

1. ladle
   • 2023, Fabcaro, Didier Conrad, L'iris blanc [Asterix and the White Iris] (Asterix), Vanves: Hachette, →ISBN, page 6:

     Peuh ! Une demi-louche de blé noir par jour et on n'en parle plus !

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Derived terms

• à la louche

Etymology 3

Regular conjugation of -er verb loucher

Verb

louche

1. inflection of loucher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

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