tache

Clipping of m(o)ustache.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tɑːʃ/, Rhymes: -ɑːʃ

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /tæʃ/, Rhymes: -æʃ

tache (plural taches)

1. (informal) Moustache, mustache.

• 'tache, tash
• 'stache, stache, stash

From French tache (“a spot”). See tetchy.

tache (plural taches)

1. (now rare) A spot, stain, or blemish.
   • 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC:

     the herynge or seynge of any vice or euyl tache

   • 1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 95:

     Alone I cared for our mother who did little else but stare at taches on floor and ceiling.

• tatch

See tack (“a kind of nail”).

tache (plural taches)

1. Something used for taking hold or holding; a catch, loop, button.
   • 1611, King James Bible, “xxvi.vi”, in Exodus‎^[1], Barker edition:

     And thou shalt make fiftie taches of gold, and couple the curtaines together with the taches: and it shall be one tabernacle.

• Teach, chate, cheat, he-cat, teach, theca

Inherited from Middle French tache, from Old French tache, taiche, taje (“mark, spot, stain”), from Vulgar Latin *tacca, *tecca, from Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “mark, sign”), from Proto-Germanic *taiknaz, *taikną (“sign, mark”), from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”).

Influenced by forms related to Frankish *stakjan, *stakkijan (“to stick, attach”) and Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌺𐍃 (staks, “mark”). See attacher.

For levelling and shortening of diphthong ai in taikns compare Old French hanter, hangart, etc. Cognate with Old High German zeihhan (“sign, symbol, feature”), Old English tācn (“sign, marker”). More at token.

• IPA^(key): /taʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Homophones: tachent, taches (general), tâche, tâchent, tâches (some speakers)
• Rhymes: -aʃ

tache f (plural taches)

1. blot, stain or smear
2. spot; more or less stain-like mark of a different color
3. (skin) blotch, mark
4. moral depravation
5. annoying or despicable person

• tacher
• tacheter

• “tache”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

From French attacher (“attach”).

• IPA^(key): /taʃe/

• Audio:

  (file)

tache

1. attach

• teche, tesche, taiche, taje

Uncertain. Two origins are proposed:

• From Vulgar Latin *tacca, *tecca, from Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌽𐍃 (taikns, “mark, sign”), from Proto-Germanic *taiknaz, *taikną (“sign, mark”).
• From the verb tachier, from Latin taxāre (“to feel, touch”).

tache oblique singular, f (oblique plural taches, nominative singular tache, nominative plural taches)

1. mark; stain

• Middle French: taiche
  • French: tache
• → Middle English: tach, tache, tasch, tasche, tasshe
  • English: tache, tatch
  • Scots: tache
  • ⇒? English: tetchy
• → Asturian: tacha
• → Galician: tacha
• → Portuguese: tacha
• → Spanish: tacha

• Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “tache”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC.

tache

1. inflection of tachar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈtat͡ʃe/ [ˈt̪a.t͡ʃe]
• Rhymes: -atʃe
• Syllabification: ta‧che

Deverbal from tachar.

tache m (plural taches)

1. (Mexico) a line or lines written to cross out something

tache

1. inflection of tachar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “tache”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025