lohoch

lohoch

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin lohoc, looch, from Arabic لَعْق‎ (laʿq, “to lick”).[1]

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈləʊhɒk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈloʊhɑk/
• Hyphenation: lo‧hoch

Noun

lohoch (plural lohochs)

1. (medicine) A medicine in a soft form taken by licking; a lambative, a linctus.
   • 1859, Al[fred François] Donné, “Of Professional Nurses”, in Mothers and Infants, Nurses and Nursing. […], Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson and Company, OCLC 4303262, page 67:

     We may obtain, then, a just idea of the constitution of this liquid [milk], if we look upon it as a soft, liquid substance, a kind of loch,^* in which caseine, sugar, &c., are dissolved, and in which the fatty or oily substance is distributed in small, rounded atoms. [Footnote *: Loch, or lohoch, is an Arabian name for a medicine of a consistence between an electuary and a sirup, and usually taken by licking. […]]

   • 1897, George du Maurier, “Part Seventh”, in The Martian: […] (Bell’s Indian and Colonial Library), London; Bombay: George Bell and Sons, OCLC 6984012, page 324:

     Uncle James had caught a cold too, so I went with Grissel; and found a chemist who'd been in France, and knew what a loch was and made one for me; […]

   • 2011, Graeme Tobyn; Alison Denham; Margaret Whitelegge, “Hyssopus officinalis, Hyssop”, in The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge, Edinburgh; London: Churchill Livingstone, →ISBN, page 195, column 2:

     [Rembert] Dodoens specifically recommends the preparation of a lohoch or loch – a 'licking medicine', of middle consistency, between a soft electuary and a syrup – for relief of obstruction, shortness of breath and an old, hard cough.

Alternative forms

• loch
• looch

Translations

medicine in a soft form taken by licking

French: looch (fr)

References

1. “lohoch, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1903.