biche
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /biʃ/
Audio: une biche (file)
Etymology 1
Inherited from Middle French biche, from Old French biche (“doe, female deer”) and bisse (“wild animal”), of uncertain origin and relation. The form bisse is almost certainly from Vulgar Latin bīstia, variant of Latin bēstia (compare bête); however, the contemporary biche is an enigma, and possibly unrelated. It may be the Picard or Norman form of bisse, (compare chent for cent) or may share origin with Middle French bique (“nanny-goat”), believed to be derived from Proto-Germanic *bik (“goat”) or perhaps related to Icelandic bikkja (“old mare, nag”). More at bouc.
Noun
biche f (plural biches)
Derived terms
- pied-de-biche (“crowbar”)
Etymology 2
Inflected forms.
Verb
biche
- inflection of bicher:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
- “biche”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Middle English
Norman
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman biche (“bitch, female dog, doe, hind”), from Middle English bicche (“bitch”). Cognate with French bique (“female goat, horse, old woman”), Icelandic bikkja (“mare, nag”), English bitch.
Pronunciation
Audio (Jersey) (file)
Coordinate terms
- trop-pliein (“drunk man”)
Old French
Portuguese
Verb
biche
- inflection of bichar:
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive
- third-person singular imperative
Rendille
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bice/
Further reading
- Günther Schlee, Karaba Sahado, Rendille Proverbs in their Social and Legal Context (2002), page 92: biche
- Günther Schlee, Some open problems of Rendille grammar (1978), page 64: biche
- Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, volume 10, page 199: bice
- Harold C Fleming, Baiso and Rendille: Somali Outliers: biče'
- Hans-Jürgen Sasse, The Consonant Phonèmes of Proto-East Cushitic (PEC), A First Approximation, Afroasiatic Linguistics, volume 7, issue 1 (1979)
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbit͡ʃe/ [ˈbi.t͡ʃe]
- Rhymes: -itʃe
- Syllabification: bi‧che
Further reading
- “biche”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014