oche
Pluraloches
- 1The marked line behind which a player's leading foot must stay when throwing a dart.
Much like a free-throw line in basketball, it fixes exactly where the player must stand.
She planted her front foot just behind the oche and lined up her shot.
Leaning across the oche as you release the dart is against the rules.
Note
A darts word with a second spelling, hockey: Harry Harrison's Skyfall (1977) has a thrower with "his toes against the hockey." Its origin is uncertain. It may come from Middle French oche, "notch," which Partridge links to English nick. The distance was not always uniform, and Keith Turner's Darts (1985) explains that small bars produced short hockeys while Yarmouth's tiny fishing pubs gave rise to 6ft marks.
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Origin
Possibly from Middle French oche ("notch"), from Old French ocher or ochier ("to notch"), which, according to Partridge, could be related to French hocher and English nick ("small cut, notch").