Etymograph

English

flitch

Flitch comes from Middle English flicche ‘the flank or side of an animal, especially one…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- ‘to tear, peel off’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₁ḱ-‘to tear, peel off’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flikkiją‘side, flitch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*flikkīreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fliċċe‘side of an animal, flitch’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flicche‘the flank or side of an animal, especially one of a pig which has been made into bacon’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1706flitch

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pleh₁ḱ-‘to tear, peel off’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*flikkiją‘side, flitch’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*flikkīreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150fliċċe‘side of an animal, flitch’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flicche‘the flank or side of an animal, especially one of a pig which has been made into bacon’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1706flitch

Earliest quotation: 1706, Henry Coggeshall, The Art of Practical Measuring … The Third Edition: “The Measure of a shell or Flitch of Timber.…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- ‘to tear, peel off’

flesh, 2 more

Today it means

noun The flank or side of an animal, now almost exclusively a pig when cured and salted; a side of bacon.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- / flitch

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