flitch

English

Etymology

From Middle English flicche, from Old English fliċċe (“side of an animal, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją (“side, flitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognate with Low German flikke, French flèche, Icelandic flikki (“flitch”), Middle Low German vlicke.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /flɪtʃ/

Noun

flitch (plural flitches)

The flank or side of an animal, now only a pig when cured and salted; a side of bacon.
- 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 95:
  The following morning before Nicholas awoke, Mulvey walked all the way to the village of Letterfrack, returning with a basket of cabbages and a flitch of bacon, two loaves of fresh bread and a plump broiling chicken.

Translations

side of bacon

French: flèche (fr) f
Irish: cliathán m

Walloon: flitche (wa) f

Verb

flitch (third-person singular simple present flitches, present participle flitching, simple past and past participle flitched)

(transitive) To cut into, or off in, flitches or strips.
to flitch logs
to flitch bacon

References

Shipley, Joseph Twadell (2009): The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots
Scherer, Philip (1941): Germanic-Balto-Slavic Etyma, Issues 26-34, p. 29