hatch

A radar image of a mayfly hatch on the Mississippi River, 29 May 2010

Meanings

Noun

Verb

  • To close with a hatch or hatches.
  • (of young animals) To emerge from an egg.
  • (of eggs) To break open when a young animal emerges from it.
  • To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch.
  • To devise.
  • To shade an area of (a drawing, diagram, etc.) with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other (cross-hatch).
  • To cross; to spot; to stain; to steep.

Origin

  • From Middle English hacche, hache, from Old English hæċ, from Proto-West Germanic *hakkju (compare Dutch hek ‘gate, railing’, Low German Heck ‘pasture gate, farmyard gate’), variant of *haggju ‘hedge’. More at hedge.
  • From Middle English hacche, hacchen, from Old English hæċċan, āhaċċian, from Proto-Germanic *hakjaną.
  • Cognate with German hecken ‘to breed, spawn’, Danish hække, Swedish häcka; akin to Latvian kakale ‘penis’.
  • From Middle French hacher ("to chop, slice up, incise with fine lines"), from Old French hacher, hachier, from Frankish *hakōn, *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną ("to chop; hack"). More at hack.

Modern English dictionary

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