Louche
Sponsored by Betty StovesEyesCame first in group 325 in round 1 with 329 votesbeat Swain on 133 votesbeat Cylinder on 104 votesbeat Popular on 21 votes
Came second in group 82 in round 2 with 260 votesbeaten by Scoundrel on 300 votesbeat Ecclesiastical on 156 votesbeat Fishmonger on 110 votes
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /luːʃ/
- (General American) IPA(key): /luʃ/
Audio (RP) (file) - Rhymes: -uːʃ
Adjective[edit]
louche (comparative loucher, superlative louchest)
- Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
- 2012 February 25, “The other half lives: The transatlantic appeal of the British ruling classes”, in The Economist[1], archived from the original on 28 April 2016:
- Upstairs Downstairs hosts the Kennedys and Wallis Simpson (these days, in British culture, the archetypal louche American).
- 2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The A.V. Club[2], archived from the original on 24 May 2016:
- Ever since X-Men: First Class set the series' clock back a few decades and installed Michael Fassbender's moody Magneto and James McAvoy's louche Charles Xavier as replacements for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's chess-playing pappies, the big-screen X-Men's central conflict—Xavier's Booker T. Washington-esque School For Gifted Youngsters vs. a rogue's gallery of evil mutants, crew cuts, and politicos—has gotten a lot murkier.
- Not reputable or decent.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 70, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- My uncle knows something about that fellow—Clavering knows something about him. There’s something louche regarding him.
- 1888, Henry James, “The Aspern Papers”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume LXI, Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Co., →OCLC, page 304:
- The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!
- Unconventional and slightly disreputable in an attractive manner; raffish, rakish.
- 2007 September 9, Guy Trebay, “Who will pull together the collections?”, in The New York Times[3], archived from the original on 3 November 2015:
- Anyone inside the business can also tell you that without Carine Roitfeld's louche sexy styling Tom Ford's Gucci might easily have come off looking like a high-end Club Monaco.
Verb[edit]
louche (third-person singular simple present louches, present participle louching, simple past and past participle louched)
- (transitive) To make (an alcoholic beverage, e.g. absinthe or ouzo) cloudy by mixing it with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect.
- Certain anise-flavored drinks have developed a mystique based on the exotic appearance of louching.
- 2010, Paul Owens, Paul Nathan, Dave Herlong, The Little Green Book of Absinthe: An Essential Companion with Lore, Trivia, and Classic and Contemporary Cocktails, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, →ISBN:
- In distillation, the first few liters of absinthe to come out of the still are called the head; the last few liters are the tail. The head and tail don't have enough alcohol to keep the oils in suspension, so the absinthe comes out of the still louched.
- 2012, Heather E. Hutsell, chapter 1, in Blood Mettle, [s.l.]: Fatty Baby Cat Publishing, →ISBN, page 2:
- I found a little corner to stand in and pretended to sip my own louched absinthe.
- 2015, Jason Sizemore, For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher, Lexington, Ky.: Apex Publishers, →ISBN:
- Ah, Mr. Sizemore, the green fairy is best prepared carefully and slowly to appreciate its full potential. Simply fill the fountain with iced water, place your glass of absinthe below the spigot with a single sugar cube placed over a slotted spoon and adjust the tap to your desired flow. The cold water will gradually dissolve the sugar and mix with the absinthe in a process known as louching.
Translations[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Ouzo effect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Dutch[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French louche, from Latin lusca.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
louche (comparative loucher, superlative meest louche or louchest)
Inflection[edit]
Declension of louche | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
uninflected | louche | |||
inflected | louche | |||
comparative | loucher | |||
positive | comparative | superlative | ||
predicative/adverbial | louche | loucher | het louchest het loucheste | |
indefinite | m./f. sing. | louche | louchere | loucheste |
n. sing. | louche | loucher | loucheste | |
plural | louche | louchere | loucheste | |
definite | louche | louchere | loucheste | |
partitive | louches | louchers | — |
French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Old French lousche, from Latin lusca, feminine of luscus (“one-eyed”) ( > Old French lois). Compare Italian losco and Portuguese lusco.
Adjective[edit]
louche (plural louches)
- (dated) cross-eyed
- (by extension) cloudy; obscure
- (figuratively) shady; dubious; seedy; shifty
Derived terms[edit]
Noun[edit]
louche m (plural louches)
- (in a liquid) cloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles
Descendants[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
A dialectal (Norman-Picard) form of Old French louce, loce, from Old Frankish *lōtija, from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō. Cognate with Dutch loet (“a tool to scrape or shovel”). More at loot.
Noun[edit]
louche f (plural louches)
Etymology 3[edit]
Regular conjugation of -er verb loucher
Verb[edit]
louche
- inflection of loucher:
Further reading[edit]
- “louche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.