freckle

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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹɛkəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkəl

freckle (plural freckles)

1. A small brownish or reddish pigmentation spot on the surface of the skin.

   Steve has brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on his cheeks and nose.

   • c. 1920s-1930s, Charlotte Druitt Cole, Runaway Jane:

     The rabbits came out from their burrows to peep, / The wind whispered, "Hush! little Jane's gone to sleep!" / And the spiders came spinning a curtain of lace, / Lest the sun should make freckles on Jane's pretty face.

   • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:

     Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

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.

• ephelis
• lentigo

• beauty mark
• dirt
• sun kiss

freckle (third-person singular simple present freckles, present participle freckling, simple past and past participle freckled)

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

• freckle up

• freckled
• freckleface
• freckly

• flecker