douce

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See also: ďouče

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English douce, from Old French dolz, dous, Middle French doux, douce, from Latin dulcis (sweet). Doublet of dolce, doux, and dulce.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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douce (comparative more douce, superlative most douce)

  1. (obsolete) Sweet; nice; pleasant.
  2. (dialect) Serious and quiet; steady, not flighty or casual; sober.
    • 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop[1], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 242:
      The bookseller, douce man, had seen too many eccentric customers to be shocked by the vehemence of his questioner.
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 27:
      what would you say of a man with plenty of silver that bided all by his lone and made his own bed and did his own baking when he might have had a wife to make him douce and brave?
    • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 145:
      If Fabre, for example, were elected to the Academy tomorrow, you would see his lust for social revolution turning overnight into the most douce and debonair conformity.
    • 1996, Alasdair Gray, “The Story of a Recluse”, in Every Short Story 1951-2012, Canongate, published 2012, page 271:
      So what strong lord of misrule can preside in this douce, commercially respectable, late 19th century city where even religious fanaticism reinforces un adventurous mediocrity?

Derived terms

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French

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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douce

  1. feminine singular of doux

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Old French dous, dolz, douce, from Latin dulcem.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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douce

  1. pleasant, sweet, nice, kind
  2. sweet to the taste

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • English: douce
  • Scots: douce

References

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Noun

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douce

  1. (rare) lover

References

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