Meanings
present singular third person bethatches · participle present bethatching · participle past bethatched · past bethatched · alternative bithecche
- transitiveuncommonTo cover with thatch; to thatch.
Part it behind, like terrier's back, Bethatch the front like wheaten stack, […]
1865, Richard Francis Burton (sir.), Stone talk - broadlyhumorousnonce wordtransitiveuncommonTo cover with hair.
Both are coolly intense, well bethatched, bell-bottomed and bespectacled.
1969, Henry Robinson Luce, Gordon Parks, Life1 more example
Baldies did not like their condition: "Witness their frantic efforts to keep among the ranks of the bethatched. […]"
1996, Kerry Segrave, Baldness: a social history
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*biþakkjan
- Old Englishbeþeċċan“to cover; protect; cover over; conceal”
- Middle Englishbithecchen
- Englishbethatch
From Middle English bithecchen, from Old English beþeċċan (“to cover; protect; cover over; conceal”), from Proto-West Germanic *biþakkjan, equivalent to be- + thatch. Cognate with Dutch bedekken (“to cover”), German bedecken (“to cover”). More at its doublet bedeck. Alteration in vowel after Middle English perhaps due to thatch.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
bethatch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bethatch
“bethatch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bethatch. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bethatch,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bethatch.
Source: bethatch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.