▪ I. tache, n.1
(† tætʃ; tæʃ, ‖ taʃ)
Forms: 4 teiche, 4–5 tech(e, tecch(e, techch(e, tacch(e, 4–7 tatch(e, 4–8 tach, 5 tetch(e, taich(e, tachch(e, 6–9 tash, 5– tache.
[a. OF. teche (11th c.), tesche, tece, tecce, taiche, teiche, teke, teqe (Godef.); also F. tache (12th c. in Godef. Compl.), † tasche.
The Fr. word is of uncertain origin, but, according to Hatz-Darm., is to be distinguished from the radical tac of tache n.2, attach, etc., with which earlier etymologists have associated it.]
1. † a. A spot, blotch, blot. Obs. exc. as in b.
| 13.. St. Erkenwolde 85 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 268 Wemles were his wedes with-outen any teiche. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2436 How tender hit is to entyse teches of fylþe. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1906) 163 A stone so clere and faire that there is no tache therein. |
‖ b. In modern scientific use only as French.
| 1893 W. R. Gowers Dis. Nervous Syst. (ed. 2) II. 339 The well-known tache cérébrale, in which cutaneous irritation is followed by unusually vivid and enduring congestion of the skin [etc.]. 1898 Syd. Soc. Lex., Tache, congenital discolorations, or freckles, or spots. Blemish. |
c. spec. in Art, a spot or dash of colour. Also fig. Cf. tachism.
| 1957 Observer 3 Nov. 14/6 The ‘tache’ is the mark the painter makes on the canvas with his paint-loaded brush, and an emphasis on the freedom and spontaneity of the creative act itself and on extreme sensitivity towards the actual materials of painting is characteristic of the tachists. 1967 J. N. Barron Lang. Painting 188 Tachisme.., a term used to describe a style of painting in which the color is applied in splotches or blots (taches) of color. 1978 G. Greene Human Factor ii. ii. 67 The simple precise words, with the single tache of colour reminded Castle of the local background so often to be found in primitive paintings. |
2. † a. fig. A moral spot or blemish; a fault or vice; a bad quality or habit; in quots. 1340–70, 1541, a physical blemish. Obs.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 3899 Alle his wykked tecches he left. 1340 Ayenb. 32 Vor oþre zix vices..þet byeþ techches of kuead seriont. 1340–70 Alisaunder 282 Hee made a uery uow auenged too beene Of þat teenefull tach [the loss of an eye] þat hee tooke þere. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 146 If þe fader be false and a shrewe, Þat somdel þe sone shal haue þe sires tacches. 1422 tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 188 Vices and ewil taichis thou shalt enchue. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 256 Snybbyd of my frendys such techechys for t'amende. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 261 b/2 She that neuer had tatche ne spot of corrupcion. 1541 [see tache v.1]. 1577 Hellowes Gueuara's Chron. 106 He had therewith a tache or a fault. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. xiii. lxxvii. 318 Of whom euen his Adorers write euill Taches many an one. |
b. An imputation of fault or disgrace; a stain; a stigma. Sc. Obs. or rare.
| c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. Author to Son (1683) b iij, Her marrying a Man commonly judged her Husbands murtherer would leave a Tash upon her name. 1692 Sir W. Hope Fencing-Master 162 If you can by any means (without puting a tash upon your honour). ? c 1716 in Wodrow Hist. Church Scotl. (1829) III. 227/1, I have made this reflection, not as a tach upon the persons who suffered. 1723 R. Hay (title) A Vindication of Elizabeth More from the Imputation of being a Concubine; and her Children from the Tache of Bastardy. 1862 M. Napier Visct. Dundee II. 218 The only tache upon his military fame. |
† c. A smack, slight taste or flavour. Obs. rare.
| 1607 Barley-Breake (1877) 28 Their grazing feast will haue a wearish tatch. |
3. A distinctive mark, quality, or habit; a trait, a characteristic, good or bad. [So in OF.] Obs. exc. dial. (tɛtʃ).
| a 1400–50 Alexander 4390 Oure techis haue we schawid, Oure dedis & of oure disciplyne. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vii. xx. 244 Wel maye he be a kynges sone for he hath many good tatches on hym. 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1545) 75 It is theyr owne maners, theyr owne qualities, tetches, condicions, and procedynges that shape them this fortune. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres iv. i. 119 Euery braue man of warre beareth a tatch of ambition and of aspiring minde. 1780 J. Berridge Lett. (1864) 400 Is any tache wanting, you could wish to see in a young man designed for the ministry? 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Tetch, habit, gait. 'Tis a tetch her've a-got. |
▪ II. tache, tach, n.2 Now rare.
(tætʃ)
Also 6–7 tatch.
[a. OF. tache fibula (14th c.), also a large nail: cf. Genevese tache, Languedoc tacho nail with broad round head, hob-nail, tack, tacket, Sp. tacha a kind of nail; also (from OF.) MDu. taetse, Du. taats, a round-headed nail, an iron pin. A doublet of tack n.1 The root is also that of F. attacher, détacher, Eng. attach, detach. See Diez and Littré. Sense 2 may be in origin a different word.]
1. A contrivance for fastening two parts together; a fibula, a clasp, a buckle, a hook and eye, or the like; a hook for hanging anything on. Obs. or arch.
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 583/10 Fibula, a tache or a laas [or a botun]. 1452 Maldon, Essex, Crt. Rolls (Bundle 31, No. 2 b), A tache of sylver..for a monkis hode. c 1500 Melusine 304 Thenne geffray cutte the taches of the geant helmet, and after cutte of his heed. 1530 Palsgr. 279/1 Tache for a gowne, atache. 1535 in Ripon Ch. Acts (Surtees) 359, j tach with j ruby ston. 1535 Coverdale Num. xxxi. 50 Brynge we a present vnto the Lorde what euery one hath,..bracelettes, rynges, earinges and taches. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis iv. (Arb.) 99 With gould tache thee vesture purple is holden. 1611 Bible Exod. xxvi. 6 Thou shalt make fiftie taches [1885 R.V. clasps] of gold, and couple the curtaines together with the taches. 1641 Evelyn Diary Aug., A lamp..hanging loose upon a tach in the middst of a beame. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. ii. vii. 184 Hook, Crook, Clasp, Hasp, Tatches. 1867 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. xiv. (1870) 274 Taches of gold..connecting together the curtains of the tabernacle. |
† b. A band or strap that may be fastened round anything. Obs. rare.
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 287 It came into [K. Richard's] mind to draw upon the legs of certaine choise Knights of his a certaine Garter or tach of leather. 1611 Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xiv. (1614) 27/2 K. Richard the First..girt the legs of certaine choise knights with a tache of leather, which promised a future glory to the wearers. |
c. fig. A means of attachment, a link, a bond of connexion.
| 1701 J. Law Counc. Trade (1751) 225 Here is no such bar or tache, as either to hinder or discourage a thief of any sort from returning to his duty. 1860 Farrar Orig. Lang. ii. 47 Finally, the word became a middle term of reminiscence, a tach between the external object and the inward impression. |
2. techn. A rest for the shank of a punch or drill: see quots. Now dial.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xii. ¶9 The Tach is..to rest and hold the Shank of a Punch steady..while the Work-man Files. Ibid. 392 Tache, a small Board with Notches in its Fore-edge..to rest the Shank of a Punch in. 1829 in J. Hunter Hallamshire Gloss. 1888–90 Sheffield Gloss., Tache (taiche)..has been defined for me as ‘a stake or rest used by silversmiths, and fixed in the workbench’. |
3. Comb., as † tach-hook, † tache-nail.
| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 50 The Veluet brought downe to the frame of the Settles..fastened to the same with tatch Nayles of Golde. 1623 tr. Favine's Theat. Hon. ii. xiii. 224 Their long Cloak, or Houpe-land,..tied with a Tach-hooke of Wood. |
▪ III. tache, n.3
(tætʃ)
Forms: 7–9 tach, tatch, 8 tetch, 8–9 tatche, teach, 9 teache, taych, tache.
[app. a. obs. or dial. F. tache, tèche plate of iron (Godef.), in Walloon tak ‘plaque de fer qu'on applique au fond d'une cheminée’ (Littré), which in F. dictionaries is usually identified with tache, tache n.1]
1. Sugar-boiling. Each pan of the series through which the juice of the sugar-cane is passed in evaporating it; esp. the smallest and last of these, called specifically the striking-tache.
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes 84 The Coppers, in which the Sugar is boyled, of which, the largest is called the Clarifying Copper, and the least, the Tatch. Ibid. 90 To throw in some of the liquor of the next Copper, to keep the tach from burning. 1740 Hist. Jamaica xii. 321 The least is called the Tach, where it boils longest. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 131 The juice will often begin to granulate in the second tetch. 1788 P. Marsden Acct. Island Jamaica 26 The smallest and last copper is called the teach. 1835 in J. H. Ingraham South-West I. 240 In the last kettle—the teach as it is termed..the sugar is concentrated to the granulating point. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 1202 The term striking is also applied to the act of emptying the teache. 1862 Illustr. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Industr. Dept., Brit. Div. II. No. 6139 Stoves, ranges, sugar pans, teaches, or boilers to any pattern or make. 1871 Kingsley At Last xi, I flung it, sugar and all, into the tache. 1885 Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 163/2 The earliest and crudest system of evaporation was the ‘copper wall’, or ‘battery’ of open pans called ‘teaches’ (taches, tayches, &c.). 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 626/1 The [cane sugar] juice..is passed from the one [pan] into the other till it reaches the last of the series, the striking teach. 1949 Caribbean Q. I. i. 9 The juice, now reduced to a syrup, was ladled into a final copper, the teache, for a last boiling. |
† 2. Applied to the flat iron pan in which tea-leaves are dried. Obs.
| 1701 J. Cunningham in Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1206 The Bing Tea is the second growth in April: and Singlo the last in May and June, both dry'd a little in Tatches or Pans over the Fire. 1802 Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 764/2 Then they [tea leaves] are tatched; this is done by throwing each time about half a catty of leaves into the tatche, and stirring them with the hand twice, the tatche being very hot. [Footnote] Tatche is a flat pan of cast iron. |
▪ IV. † tache, n.4 Obs. rare—1.
Also 5 tach, tacche, tasche, tasshe.
[Origin obscure.]
Touch-wood, tinder.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xx. 211 Bote þou haue tache [v.rr. tach, tasche, tasshe, B. xvii. 245 towe] to take hit with tunder and broches, Al þy labour is lost. |
▪ V. tache, v.1 Now dial.
(tætʃ, taʃ)
Forms: (4 tass), 5–6 tatch, 6–7 tach(e, 7– Sc. tash.
[a. F. tacher, OF. tachier to stain, soil, f. tache, tache n.1]
trans. To stain or taint, esp. with moral defilement, or with the imputation of guilt or shameful conduct; to stigmatize; rarely (quot. 1541), to infect physically. Obs. or Sc. dial.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 242 The wyde world merveileth yit, That he [Solomon]..With fleisshly lustes was so tassed [rime passed]. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. vi. v. (W. de W.) m v b, Al chyldern ben tatchyd wyth euyll maners. 1502 W. Atkynson tr. De Imitatione iii. xxxiv. 223 What shall I say, that am tached thus with tribulacions. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. Q ij b, To be scalled, or tached with suche infecte dyseases, or that he bere some tache vpon hym. 1596 Warner Alb. Eng. x. lviii, Otherwise a worthy Prince, nor tache we him but so. Ibid. xi. lxv. (1612) 280 Though she did obserue his soone Reuolt..And him thereof had tacht. 1598 Barret Theor. Warres ii. i. 28 Infamous, or tatched with foule crimes. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Jas. V, Wks. (1711) 104 At the least to leave him suspected and tached with this treason. 1747 in Ann. Gen. Assemb. Ch. Scot. (1838) 105 His character ought not to be tashed. 1827 J. Watt Poems 101 (E.D.D.) Their frien's gat word an' gather roun' Determin'd sair to tease an' tash. |
b. To blemish, deface; to tarnish or spoil slightly by handling or use; to make the worse for wear; tashed, tarnished, worn, weather-beaten. Sc.
| 17.. in Ritson Sc. Songs (1794) I. 214 They're tashed like, and sair torn, And clouted sair on ilka knee. 1863 Alex. Smith Dreamthorp 18 They [books] are tashed as roses are tashed by being frequently handled or smelt. 1895 W. C. Fraser Whaups xiii. 189 An indoor face, no tashed wi' the weather, but sair blotched wi' the dram. 1903 Glaiser in Co-op. News 16 May 567 (E.D.D.) If thet isna Miss Thorpe's new body slip... Go and get it off afore yo' tash it any worse. |
▪ VI. tache, v.2 Obs. or dial.
(tætʃ)
Also 4–5 tacche, 5–7 tatche, 5–9 tatch.
[f. tache n.2, or from the same root. In sense 2 (and sometimes in 1), app. aphetic from atache, attach.]
1. trans. To fasten, attach, fix, secure (a person or thing). Also fig.
| a 1310 in Wright Lyric P. xxv. 70 Thy love sprenges tacheth me. c 1315 Shoreham Poems ii. 101 Þo þy chyld was an-honge, Itached to þe harde tre Wyþ nayles gret and longe! c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 12056 Ropes..to tache & teye. 1483 Cath. Angl. 376/2 To Tache, attachiare. 1530 Palsgr. 746/1, I tache a gowne or a typpet with a tache. 1575 Gamm. Gurton ii. iii, To seeke for a thonge Therwith this breech to tatche & tye. 1609 R. Barnerd Faithf. Sheph. To Rdr. 7 Tatching matter together with dependancie. |
2. To lay hold of (a person); esp. to arrest, apprehend by legal authority; = attach v. 1 a.
| c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 5690 Thei scholde for euere him haue tached, Ne hadde ben duk Menescene. c 1440 Jacob's Well 24 Alle þat malycyously tachyn, arestyn, or endyten..men of holy cherch. c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 304 Thar folowed him fyfteyn Wicht, wallyt men..to tach him to the law. 1528 Tyball's Confess. in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) I. App. xvii. 35 The same day..that Sir Richard Fox was tached. 1530 Palsgr. 746/1, I tache a thefe, I laye handes upon hym. ? a 1635 Forbes Disc. Pervers Deceit 6 (Jam.) A cunning and long covered thiefe tatched with innumerable fanges [plunder]. |
Hence ˈtaching vbl. n. and ppl. a. taching end, a shoemaker's waxed thread pointed with a hog's bristle.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 485/2 Tachynge, or a-restynge, arestacio. c 1485 E.E. Misc. (Warton Club) 73 Grynd hem togedyre a longe tyme one a stone, tylle hit be somdele tacchynge. c 1535 F. Bygod Impropriations in Lever's Serm. (Arb.) Introd. 13 Snatchynge and scratchinge, tatchynge and patchynge, scrapinge and rakynge togyther of almost all the fatte benefyces. 1611 Cotgr., Ligneul, shoomakers thread; or, a tatching end. a 1763 Shenstone Ess., Men & Manners (1765) 187 A cobler with ten or a dozen children dependent on a tatching end. 1858 H. Ainsworth Mervyn Clitheroe i. 15 Canes..tied with tatching end to prevent them from splitting. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. s.v., Every piece of ‘tachin-end’ used in joining has a hog's bristle fixed at each end so as to act as a kind of flexible needle. |
▪ VII. † tache, v.3 Obs.
[Perh. the same in origin as tache v.2; cf. OF. atachier in sense ‘to attack’, It. attaccare to attach, to attack, and see note to attach v.]
intr. To make a (hostile) charge or attack; to charge.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 2622 Kniȝtis on cursours kest þan in fewtire, Taches [Dubl. MS. tachyng] in-to targetis tamed þaire brenys [v.r. brynnes]. c 1400 Sege Jerusalem 656 Quarels & arwes..Toysen at þe toures: tachen on þe Jewes. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6717 Telamon hym tacchit on with a tore speire. Ibid. 6783 Deffibus the doughty,..Tachit vpon Teutro, a full tore dynt. Ibid. 8297 Then Diamede..On Troiell with tene tachet belyue. |
▪ VIII. † tache, tatch, v.4 Obs. rare.
[f. tache n.3]
trans. To dry (tea) in a ‘tache’ or shallow pan.
| 1802 Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 765/1 Bohea tea is gathered, sunned in baskets, rolled with the hand, and then tatched, which completes it. Ibid., Tatching seems to give the green colour to the leaves of the tea trees. |
▪ IX. tache
early ME. var. of teach v.