pech

• paich, pegh

Borrowed from Scots pech, apparently of imitative origin.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɛk/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /pɛx/
• Rhymes: -ɛx, -ɛk

pech (third-person singular simple present pechs, present participle peching, simple past and past participle peched)

1. (Scotland, Northern England) To pant, to struggle for breath.
   • 1913, John Buchan, Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall, page 136:

     An' as they breisted the lang lang hill / The puir horse graned and peched.

   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 321:

     Then Chris saw Bruce, the porter, come in, with the mark on his jaw where his godfather hit him, then Leslie, the smith, paiching and sweating, he dropped his stick with an awful clatter.

   • 1954, Robin Jenkins, The Thistle and the Grail, published 1994, page 225:

     She peched and had to rest often.

   • 1955, Robin Jenkins, The Cone-Gatherers, Canongate, published 2012, page 207:

     When Graham reached him, however, he felt so exhausted he could not immediately explain; he had to sit on the ground, peching like a seal.

   • 1994, James Kelman, How Late it Was, How Late:

     If he could just stop breathing and listen but he was peching too much from the climb.

• EHCP, ceph, hep C

pech m (plural pechoù)

1. trap, booby trap

pech

1. duck

Borrowed from German Pech.

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛx]

pech m inan

1. (colloquial) bad luck

   Synonym: smůla

• “pech”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “pech”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

From German Pech (“bad luck; pitch, tar”), from Old High German peh, from Latin pīx. Doublet of inherited pek (“pitch”). Also cognate with English pitch.

The sense “breakdown” is a Dutch innovation. It is probably modelled on the word ongeluk, which means both “bad luck, misfortune” and “accident”. Since pech typically denotes a lesser kind of bad luck, it came to be used for a lesser kind of traffic accident too. German uses Panne instead; compare Dutch panne.

• IPA^(key): /pɛx/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pech
• Rhymes: -ɛx

pech m (uncountable)

1. bad luck; misfortune
2. breakdown, e.g. of a car

• Negerhollands: pech

From German Pech.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɛxː]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pech
• Rhymes: -ɛxː

pech (plural pechek)

1. bad luck, misfortune

   Synonym: balszerencse

   Antonyms: szerencse, mázli

• peches

• pech in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

Borrowed from German Pech. Doublet of pach.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛx/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛx
• Syllabification: pech
• Homophone: Pech

pech m animal

1. (usually in the singular) bad luck, misfortune

   Synonyms: niefart, nieszczęście

   Antonyms: fart, szczęście

   • 2002 December 13, Magdalena Grochowalska, “Szczęśliwa trzynastka?”, in Express Ilustrowany (journalism), Łódź: Oddział Prasa Łódzka, →ISSN:

     Jeśli w „normalny” dzień przewrócimy się i nic sobie nie zrobimy, to powiemy, że mieliśmy ogromne szczęście. Jeśli przydarzy nam się to trzynastego, w piątek, powiemy, że spotkał nas pech.

     If on a “normal” day we fall down and we don't hurt ourselves, then we say we were incredibly lucky. If this happens on Friday the 13th, then we say we were unlucky.

• pech in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• pech in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Imitative.

• IPA^(key): /pɛç/

pech (third-person singular simple present pechs, present participle pechin, simple past pecht, past participle pecht)

1. to pant, gasp for breath