Pech

See also: pech

English

Proper noun

Pech

1. An indigenous Amerindian language spoken in Honduras.

Synonyms

• Paya

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Pech terms

Anagrams

• EHCP, ceph, hep C

German

Etymology

From Middle High German pech, bech, from Old High German peh, beh, from Proto-West Germanic *pik (“pitch, tar, wood resin”).

The form is unusual as it shows unshifted p-, but shifted -ch, even though the shift of initial p- to pf- occurred later than that of postvocalic -k to -ch. Theodor Frings therefore considered that the word was at first restricted to West Central German along the Rhine (which lacks the pf-shift) and only spread to Upper German slightly later when the shift was no longer active. (Middle High German pfich occurs only once in a Central German text from the 14th century and is thus probably a hypercorrection.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛç/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛç

Noun

Pech n (strong, genitive Pechs or Peches, plural Peche)

1. (usually uncountable) pitch (sticky substance)
2. (uncountable) bad luck, misfortune

   Synonym: Unglück

   Antonym: Glück

   Pech haben ― to be unlucky

   • 1983, “Ich bin müde”, Rio Reiser (lyrics), Wolgang Michels (music):

     Du denkst nach vorne, ich denk zurück. / Ich zieh das Pech an, du hast nur Glück.

     You think forward, I think back. / I attract bad luck, you have only luck.

Declension

Declension of Pech [neuter, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	das	Pech	die	Peche
genitive	eines	des	Pechs, Peches	der	Peche
dative	einem	dem	Pech, Peche1	den	Pechen
accusative	ein	das	Pech	die	Peche

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• Pechblende
• Pechnelke
• Pechsträhne
• Pechvogel

Related terms

• pekig

Descendants

• → Dutch: pech
• → Hungarian: pech
• → Polish: pech
• → Serbo-Croatian: pȅh
• → Slovak: pech
• → Czech: pech

Further reading

• “Pech” in Duden online
• “Pech” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old High German peh, from Latin pix. Cognate with German Pech, Dutch pek, English pitch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pæɕ/

Noun

Pech m (uncountable)

1. glue
2. sticky tape
3. bad luck, misfortune

Derived terms

• pechen