different between letch vs ketch

English

Alternative forms

• lech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?t??/

Etymology 1

See lech, lecher.

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. (archaic) Strong desire; passion.
   • 1830, Thomas De Quincey, Life of Richard Bentley (review)

     Some people have a letch for unmasking impostors, or for avenging the wrongs of others.

2. (informal) A lecher.

Etymology 2

From Middle English leche, for example Sandy's Letch located east of Annitsford in Northumberland.

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. A stream or pool in boggy land.

Etymology 3

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. Alternative form of leach

Verb

letch (third-person singular simple present letches, present participle letching, simple past and past participle letched)

1. Alternative form of leach

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English leche (“an infusion”).

Noun

letch

1. small beer

References

• J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?t?/

• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English catche, from cacchen (“to catch”). For the modern form with /?/, compare the pronunciation /k?t?/ of catch.

Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

1. A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen being stepped forward of the rudder post.
   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, London: J. Brotherton et al., p. 313,^[1]

     […] to finish her new Habit or Appearance, and make her Change compleat, he ordered her Sails to be alter’d; and as she sailed before with a Half-Sprit, like a Yacht, she sailed now with square Sail and Mizen Mast, like a Ketch; so that, in a Word, she was a perfect Cheat […]

Translations

Descendants

• ? Dutch: kits

See also

• yawl.

Further reading

• ketch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

See catch.

Verb

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple past and past participle ketched)

1. Pronunciation spelling of catch.
   • 1815, D. HUMPHREYS, Yankey in England, I. 21,

     I guess, he is trying to ketch mebut it won't du. I'm tu old a bird to be ketch'd with chaff.

   • 1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, II. IV. xv., page 287

     Wot is it, lambs, as they ketches in seas, rivers, lakes, and ponds?

   • 1883 [see KNUCK 2].
   • 1916, W. O. BRADLEY, Stories & Speeches 18

     You'll never ketch me hollerin' at no Republican gatherin'.

   • 1929, H. W. ODUM, in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973), page 184

     If so you gonna ketch hell.

   • 1967, Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 103/1

     You heard about that joke a dollar down and a dollar when you ketch me?

   • 1968 S. STUCKEY, in A. Chapman, New Black Voices (1972), page 445

     Run, nigger, run, de patrollers will ketch you.

Etymology 3

From Jack Ketch, a hangman of the 17th century.

Verb

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple past and past participle ketched)

1. (rare) To hang.
   • 1681, T. FLATMAN Heraclitus Ridens No. 14

     'Squire Ketch rejoices as much to hear of a new Vox, as an old Sexton does to hear of a new Delight.

   • n.d., Ibid;;. No. 18

     Well! If he has a mind to be Ketch'd, speed him say I.

   • 1840, Fraser's Mag., XXI. 210

     Ignorant of many of the secrets of ketchcraft.

   • 1859, MATSELL Vocab. s.v. (Farmer),

     I'll ketch you; I'll hang you.

Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

1. A hangman.