Ache
Pronunciation
- enPR: Äk, IPA: /eɪk/
- Rhymes: -eɪk
Origin 1
Alternative forms
- ake obsolete
From Middle English aken, and ache, from Old English acan (from Proto-Germanic *akaną ("to be bad, be evil")) and æċe (from Proto-Germanic *akiz), both from Proto-Indo-European *ag- ("sin, crime"). Cognate with Low German aken, achen, äken ("to hurt, to ache"), North Frisian akelig, æklig ("terrible, miserable, sharp, intense"), West Frisian aaklik ("nasty, horrible, dismal, dreary"), Dutch akelig ("nasty, horrible"). The noun was originally pronounced as spelled, with a palatized ch sound (compare batch, from bake); the verb was originally strong, conjugating for tense like take (e.g. I ake, I oke, I have aken), but gradually became weak during Middle English. Historically the verb was spelled ake, and the noun ache. The verb came to be spelled like the noun when Samuel Johnson mistakenly assumed that it derived from Ancient Greek ἄχος (áchos, "pain") due to the similarity in form and meaning of the two words.
Full definition of ache
Verb
- (intransitive) To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.
- circa 1593 Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene V:Fie, how my bones ache!
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. … It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.
- (transitive, literary, rare) To cause someone or something to suffer pain.
Derived terms
Noun
ache
(plural aches)Derived terms
Pronunciation
- enPR: Äch, IPA: /eɪt͡ʃ/
- Rhymes: -eɪt͡ʃ
Origin 2
From Old French and modern French ache, from Latin apium ("celery").
Origin 3
Representing the pronunciation of the letter H.