Word of the Week: Ruche

Ruche: A soft gather or pleat of fabric or leather, usually in a repeated pattern. Also a verb: to form into soft gathers. Pronounced with a long O (rsh).

In the original French, a ruche is a beehive; the word came from post-classical Latin rusca, meaning bark.

From an online French coloring “book,” Coloriage.tv.

Ruched fabric or leather resembles the woven texture of a beehive.

Ruched handbag by Fullum & Holt.

Dress with side ruching by Michael Michael Kors. (Yes, two Michaels.)

The fabric sense of ruche came into English in the early 19th century. The OED gives this 1809 citation: “Four rows of blond, or ribband, in whole, plaiting at one edge, .. called a ruche, is a favourite addition to lace or satin caps.” (Blond was a type of lace.)

Ruching may not be for everyone. In her 1897 advice manual, What Dress Makes of Us, Dorothy Quigley—a woman of strong sartorial opinions—tut-tutted:

It is plain to be seen that the fluffy ruche at the throat-band, and the ruffle at the shoulder, and the spreading bow at the waist, and the trimmed sleeves, add bulkiness to a form already too generously endowed with flabby rotundity.

(Via Wordnik. The complete text of this instructive and amusing book is available free online thanks to Project Gutenberg, whose founder, Michael Hart, died last week.)

Ruche is occasionally (mis)spelled rouche, possibly in imitation of a more familiar French word, rouge (literally, “red”), or from confusion with the eccentric American politician Lyndon LaRouche. Yes, some dictionaries dutifully cite “rouche” as an alternate spelling, because some people persist in spelling it that way and because lexicographers are in the business of recording real, not idealized, language. But the word’s etymology is revealed only when the O-less spelling is used.

Other French-to-English words of the week: louche, flou, oubliette, guipure, domestique, and sillage.

Comments

[Amy Reynaldo]

I disagree with Dorothy Quigley. I bought a ruched dress last year that was clingy and yet camouflaged all figure imperfections.

[h.s. gudnason]

In honor of a leg I broke 10 years ago, I was at one time given to collecting seemingly relevant cuttings about broken legs. I have one from a Viennese newspaper, Die Presse, from August 6, 2005 with the headline "Berüschte Krücke" (a crutch with a ruche). As I recall, it came from a review of a concert by a singer who had broken her leg but appeared on stage with an appropriately (in her mind, at least) decorated crutch.

[Nancy Davis Kho]

Reminds me of something that a gay friend of mine once told me: "If you want to know whether your boyfriend is gay or not, ask him to define the word 'peplum'. No straight man knows what that is."