Etymology

patch

P3A1T1C3H4

Today it means: A piece of cloth, or other suitable material, sewed or otherwise fixed upon a garment to repair or strengthen it, especially upon an old garment to cover a hole. Full definition →

Middle English patche ← Old English *plæċċ ← Proto-West Germanic *plakkju
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patch · noun, verb1

  1. Old French · derived frompieche
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*plakjō“spot, stain”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*plakkju
  4. Old English · inherited from*plæċċ
  5. Middle English · inherited frompatche
  6. English todaypatch

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”). Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).

patch · noun2

  1. Italian · borrowed frompazzo
  2. English todaypatch

Perhaps borrowed from Italian pazzo or paggio; the form influenced by folk etymological association with patch (Etymology 1).

Patch · proper noun3

English and German surname of uncertain origin; perhaps from a nickname related to Peter.

Words from the same roots

Proto-West Germanic*plakkju all →

pleck

Proto-Germanic*plakjō all →

pleck

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.