Link Centre Dictionary

freckle

UK/ˈfɹɛkəl/ US/ˈfrɛkʌl/ rare slang
noun (1) verb (2)

noun

1.

a small brownish spot (of the pigment melanin) on the skin

Synonyms

verb

1.

become freckled

  • “I freckle easily”
2.

mark with freckles

Origin

From Middle English freken, frekel, from Old Norse freknur pl (compare Faroese frøknur, Swedish fräknar, Danish fregner), s-less variant of Old English sprecel from Proto-Germanic *sprekalą (“freckle”) (compare dialectal Norwegian sprekla, Middle High German spreckel), from Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)er(e)g- (“to strew, sprinkle”). Cognate with Albanian fruth (“measles”). More at spark. Related to spry, sprack.

Phrases

  • a hair past a freckle
  • banana freckle
  • freckle up
  • smelly freckle

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.