mutch

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch mutse, from amutse, from Late Latin almucia (“almuce”); compare amice, mozzetta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʌt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ʌtʃ

  Homophones: much

Noun

mutch (plural mutches)

1. (now rare, Scotland) A nightcap (hat worn to bed). [from 15th c.]
2. A linen or muslin hat, especially one of a type once commonly worn by elderly women and young children. [from 16th c.]
   • 1901, Ralph Connor, The Man From Glengarry, Echo Library, published 2007, page 66:

     But of all the congregation, none enjoyed the singing more than the dear old women who sat in the front seats near the pulpit, their quiet old faces looking so sweet and pure under their snow-white “mutches.”

   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 15:

     And […] off to the asylum they hurled the daftie, he went with a nurse's mutch on his head and he put his head out of the back of the waggon and said Cockadoodledoo! to some school bairns […]

   • 1986, Sheila MacGregor, The folktales: 5: Silver and Gold, Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Till Doomsday in the Afternoon: The Folklore of a Family of Scots Travelers, the Stewarts of Blairgowrie, page 74,

     So Silver and Gold gets all prepared and ready, and he says, “Och, that′s awfae-lookin′ things on your heids”, he says. “Tak′ they mutches aff. You′ll no′ need them now because your faither′ll no′ see you.” So they tak′ the mutches aff their heid and they throw them awa′.

Derived terms

• night mutch
• bonet mutch
• double mutch
• under-mutch
• hair-mutch
• mutchless
• kell mutch
• laced mutch