mèche

See also: Meche, meche, and meché

French

Etymology

From Old French mesche, via Late Latin *micca or Vulgar Latin *mysca, alteration of Latin myxa (“sebesten tree”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛʃ/

• Audio (une mèche):

  (file)

Noun

mèche f (plural mèches)

1. wick (of candle)
2. fuse (of a bomb)
3. lock, tuft (of hair); streak (of colour, etc., in hair)
   • 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné, XLVIII:

     Mes cheveux, coupés au hasard, tombaient par mèches sur mes épaules, et l'homme en chapeua à trois cornes les époussetait doucement avec sa grosse main.

     My hair, cut at random, fell in clumps on to my shoulders, and the man in the tricorn hat brushed them away softly with his fat hand.

4. (medicine) packing
5. drill bit
6. (music, lutherie, bowmaking) hair

Derived terms

• vendre la mèche

Further reading

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

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French mèche.

Noun

mèche f (uncountable)

1. streak (in the hair)