ouche
Pluralouches
- 1A brooch or clasp for fastening a garment together, especially one set with jewels or precious stones.
The queen wore an ouche of sapphires upon her breast.
With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.
1611, The Holy Bible, King James VersionNote
A word that lost its first letter to the article in front of it: Middle English a nouche was heard as an ouche, and the n never returned. Behind it lie Anglo-Norman nusche and a Germanic source. Today it belongs to historical and poetic writing. Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590) has a mitre with crowns and owches garnished, and older texts often spell it owche. In modern prose it suits descriptions of period dress.
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Origin
From Middle English ouche, which arose from nouche: in phrases like 'a nouche' the word was re-analyzed as 'an ouche' (rebracketing). It comes from Anglo-Norman nusche and Old French nusche (also by metanalysis), from a Germanic source; compare German Nusche and Proto-Germanic *hnuts.