freckle

Meaning

Noun

1. A small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin.
2. Any small spot or discoloration.
3. (Australia) A small sweet consisting of a flattish mound of chocolate covered in hundreds and thousands.
4. (Australia, slang) The anus.

Verb

1. (transitive) To cover with freckles.
2. (intransitive) To become covered with freckles.

Synonyms

lentigo

mole

spot

speckle

birthmark

dot

mark

spotted

ephelis

pitted

mildew

speckled

melanism

heat-spot

stained

striped

tarnished

dotted

mottled

nevus

Translations

Sommersprosse

tache de rousseur

lentiggine

peca

sproet

φακίδα

piga

çil

sarda

zomersproet

macchiolina

efelide

نمش

Fleckchen

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfɹɛkəl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: freken

Cognate with Faroese: frøknur

Cognate with Swedish: fräknar

Cognate with Danish: fregner

Cognate with Old English: sprecel

Cognate with Albanian: fruth

In summary

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.