Wordwyrt

debouch

Meaningthe cheek

Common meaning: emerge from a narrow place

‘apart, away’ + ‘to stop up the mouth of’ → debouch

Journey through time

Hybrid: Latin + Old French Its parts come from different languages; the combined form first appears in our sources in Latin.

  • de — Latin dis- “apart, away” (path traced)
  • bouch — Old French boucher “to stop up the mouth of” (path traced)

Parts join in Latin as bucca.

  1. Latindis- + boucher‘apart, away + to stop up the mouth of’source
  2. Latinbucca‘the cheek’source
  3. Frenchmeaning shiftsthe cheek → to uncork, to emergedéboucher‘to uncork, to emerge’source
  4. Englishdebouch‘emerge from a narrow place’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.
  • US IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.

Origin: Built on Latin bucca, which Skeat analyses as dis- ‘apart, away’ + boucher ‘to stop up the mouth of’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry DEBOUCH, p. 155 · dictionary scan

Roots

  • boucher Old French “to stop up the mouth of”
  • bucca Latin “the cheek”

Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app