yrchoun
Middle English
Alternative forms
- yrichon, irchoun, urchoun, hirchoun, irchouon, irchun, hirichoun, urcheon, yrchon, urchun, hyrchyn, urchen, urchon
Etymology
From Old Northern French irechon, herichun, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈ(h)irtʃun/, /ˈ(h)urtʃun/, /-in/
Noun
yrchoun (plural yrchouns)
- hedgehog (mammal of the family Erinaceidae or similar animal)
- before 1400, The Romaunt of the Rose, translated from French, partially by Geoffrey Chaucer
- […] Like sharp urchouns his here was growe, / His eyes rede as the fire-glow; […]
- before 1400, The Romaunt of the Rose, translated from French, partially by Geoffrey Chaucer
- sea urchin; echinoderm
- (rare, cooking) A stuffed pig with almond or pastry "spikes".
Descendants
- English: urchin
- Scots: hurcheon
References
- “irchǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- James Orchard Halliwell (1846), “HURCHEON”, in A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs, and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I (A–I), London: John Russell Smith, […], OCLC 1008510154, page 469, column 2.