different between louche vs douche

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French louche.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lu??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /lu?/
• Rhymes: -u??

Adjective

louche (comparative more louche, superlative most louche)

1. Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
2. Not reputable or decent.
3. Unconventional and slightly disreputable in an attractive manner; raffish, rakish.

Verb

louche (third-person singular simple present louches, present participle louching, simple past and past participle louched)

1. (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.

Translations

Further reading

• Ouzo effect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French louche, from Latin lusca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lu.??/
• Hyphenation: lou?che

Adjective

louche (comparative loucher, superlative meest louche or louchest)

1. seedy, fishy, shady

Inflection

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lu?/

Etymology 1

From Old French lousche, from Latin lusca, feminine of luscus (“one-eyed”) ( > Old French lois). Compare Italian losco and Portuguese lusco.

Adjective

louche (plural louches)

1. (dated) cross-eyed
2. (by extension) cloudy; obscure
3. (figuratively) shady; dubious; seedy; shifty

Derived terms

Noun

louche f (plural louches)

1. (in a liquid) cloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles

Descendants

• ? English: louche
• ? Dutch: louche

Etymology 2

A dialectal (Norman-Picard) form of Old French louce, loce, from Old Frankish *l?tija, from Proto-Germanic *hl?þþij?. Cognate with Dutch loet (“a tool to scrape or shovel”). More at loot.

Noun

louche f (plural louches)

1. ladle

Etymology 3

Regular conjugation of -er verb loucher

Verb

louche

1. first-person singular present indicative of loucher
2. third-person singular present indicative of loucher
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of loucher
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of loucher
5. second-person singular imperative of loucher

Further reading

• “louche” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French douche (“shower”), from Italian doccia (“shower”). Sense 4 from douche bag.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /du??/
• Rhymes: -u??

Noun

douche (plural douches)

1. A jet or current of water or vapour directed upon some part of the body to benefit it medicinally; in particular, such a jet directed at the vagina for vaginal irrigation.
   • 1892 Robert Ottiwell Gifford-Bennet, Buxton and its Medicinal Waters, London: John Heywood, [1]

     Massage, or kneading of the whole body, is carried out in this bath after which a steam douche or a warm spray is turned upon the affected parts, according to the nature of the case.

   • 1898 Selma Lagerlöf (trans. Pauline Bancroft Flach), The Story of Gösta Berling, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, Part II, Chapter I, p. 249 [2]

     Earth, the great mother, begins to live. Romping like a child she rises from her bath in the spring floods, from her douche in the spring rain.

   • 1973 Jaroslav Hašek (trans. Cecil Parrott), The Good Soldier Švejk, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 4, p. 32,

     In the bathroom, they immersed him in a tub of warm water, and then pulled him out and put him under a cold douche.

2. Something that produces the jet or current in the previous sense, such as a syringe.
3. (obsolete) A jet or spray of any liquid.
4. (slang, derogatory) Ellipsis of douchebag: A contemptible person; a worthless, brainless or disgusting person.

Derived terms

Related terms

• doos

Translations

Verb

douche (third-person singular simple present douches, present participle douching, simple past and past participle douched)

1. To administer a douche to; to shower; to douse
   • 1926, D. H. Lawrence, The Plumed Serpent, New York: Knopf, Chapter II,

     […] a frizzy half-white woman who looked as if she had fallen into a flour-sack, her face was so deep in powder, and her frizzy hair and her brown silk dress so douched with the white dust of it.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter VI, p. 81, [4]

     Mrs. McLash's anger was gone completely, douched not nearly so much by the beer as by this attention to her son.

   • 1992, Edna O'Brien, Time and Tide, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, Chapter 9, p. 66,

     The boxes would reek of the smell of rich plum cake, with brandy or sherry douched over it.

   • 2007, Valerie Allen, On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, p. 153,

     Tragedy acts then like a laxative […] or an aperient […] to douche our systems of humors and emotions that unbalance the soul, so that we may return to the virtuous golden mean, to homeostatic equilibrium.

2. To use a douche.

Translations

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /du?/
• Hyphenation: dou?che

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French douche (“shower”), from Italian doccia (“shower”). See also does (“shower head”).

Noun

douche m or f (plural douches, diminutive doucheje n)

1. shower

   Synonym: stortbad

Derived terms

• douchecabine
• douchegel
• douchegordijn
• douchehok
• douchekop

Descendants

• ? Indonesian: dus (“shower”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

douche

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of douchen

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian doccia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /du?/

Noun

douche f (plural douches)

1. shower
2. (juggling) shower

Derived terms

Verb

douche

1. first-person singular present indicative of doucher
2. third-person singular present indicative of doucher
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of doucher
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of doucher
5. second-person singular imperative of doucher

Related terms

• doucher
• douchette

Descendants

See also

• bain

Derived terms

• douche vaginale

Further reading

• “douche” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French douche, from Italian doccia.

Noun

douche f (plural douches)

1. (Jersey) shower