Etymologically
Log in

ouch

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 06:27. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

ouch1 brooch, setting for a jewel

Etymology

The brooch is inherited from Middle English ouche, a form of nouche,[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman nouche, also nusche,[4][2][6] with its Old French counterpart nosche, also noche and nouche.[3][7][8][9] The initial n- was lost when “a nouche” was taken as “an ouche”, as in adder and apron;[7][3][10][9][11] Collins dates “a nouche” to the 14th century and “an ouch” to the 15th,[11] while the American Heritage Dictionary places the misdivision already in Anglo-Norman, “une nouche” becoming “une ouche”.[4] The French word is of Germanic origin,[4][3][2][11] from Frankish according to the Shorter Oxford;[7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Old Saxon nuska, nuskia, Middle Dutch nusche and Old High German nusca (“clasp, brooch”), and relates it to net.[3] Klein takes it through Medieval Latin nusca from the Old High German word.[8] The American Heritage Dictionary refers it to the root Proto-Indo-European *ned-,[4] which Klein glosses "to knot, twist";[8] Klein, Skeat, Weekley and the Shorter Oxford think the Germanic word perhaps Celtic, comparing Old Irish nasc (“a tie, chain; a ring”) and Breton nask (“a rope for tying animals”).[8][5][10][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A jewelled ornament, a mounted gem or cluster of gems, a brooch, buckle or clasp: 1317, as nuche, in a London document, and in 1322 as nouche.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered brooches, pins, clasps, bracelets and necklaces set with gems.[2] Chaucer and Gower each use nouche three times;[12] Weekley quotes Chaucer's House of Fame, where things "were set as thikke of nouchis / Full of the fynest stones faire".[10] The OED records the form ouch, a clasp or brooch, from 1382,[13] and the sense of the gold or silver setting of a precious stone from 1481;[13] the Authorized Version's "thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold" (Exodus 28:11) uses it in this sense.[3][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "an ornament of gold or jewels", quoting Bacon, and also gave ouch of a boar, the blow of a boar's tusk.[14][13] From 1612 it could mean a carbuncle or sore on the skin, a sense now obsolete.[13] A verb ouch, to adorn with ouches, is recorded from 1610.[13][7] The word is now archaic.[11][7]

Timeline

  • 1317 – nuche, a jewelled clasp or brooch.[2]
  • 1382 – ouch, a clasp, buckle or brooch.[13]
  • 1481 – the setting of a precious stone.[13]
  • 1610 – verb, to adorn with ouches.[13]
  • 1612 – a carbuncle or sore on the skin (obsolete).[13]
  • 1736 – the blow of a boar's tusk (obsolete).[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A clasp, buckle or brooch, especially one set with gems.[11][3][7]
  2. (archaic) The setting of a precious stone.[11][3][13]

Verb

  1. (archaic) To adorn with ouches.[13][7]

ouch2 cry of pain

Etymology

The cry of pain is probably borrowed from Pennsylvania German autch (“a cry of pain”),[15][16] which Etymonline spells “outch”,[16] from German autsch.[16][9] The OED calls it ultimately imitative and perhaps from the German interjection, noting that the earliest examples are all American and so perhaps from Pennsylvania German; it also compares ow.[17] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives its origin as unknown,[3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it a natural exclamation, first recorded in the mid 17th century.[7][18] That early date rests on a verb “ouching” quoted from 1654 in the first edition of the OED, which the revised OED shows to be a misreading of “Onching”.[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Expressing sudden physical pain, and also emotional pain or disappointment: 1838, in J. C. Neal's Charcoal Sketches.[17][3] Barnhart dates it to 1837.[15]

Semantic evolution

The interjection was soon used as a noun for a cry of "ouch" or an experience that provokes one (1843).[17] From 1898 there was a verb, at first to say "ouch", now also to hurt.[17] In the 20th century it came to express sympathy with someone else's pain (1912) and, chiefly in jest, to answer an insult or a cutting remark (1916).[17]

Timeline

  • 1837 – first record according to Barnhart.[15]
  • 1838 – an exclamation of physical or emotional pain.[17][3]
  • 1843 – noun, a cry of "ouch".[17]
  • 1898 – verb, to cry "ouch".[17]
  • 1912 – expressing sympathy with another's pain.[17]
  • 1916 – a humorous response to an insult.[17]

Meanings

Interjection

  1. Used to express sudden pain: Ouch! That pan is hot.[11][3][17]
  2. Used to express hurt feelings, displeasure or sympathy with someone else's pain.[3][17]
  3. Used, chiefly humorously, in reply to an insult or a cutting remark.[17]

Noun

  1. A cry of "ouch"; an experience that makes one cry it.[17][7]

Verb

  1. To cry "ouch"; also, to hurt.[17][7]

Word family

  • ouchie
  • ouchy
  • net
  • adder
  • apron
  • ow

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press