ouche

Etymology

From Middle English ouche, from nouche, which in phrases like a nouche was re-analyzed as an ouche (rebracketing). From Anglo-Norman nusche and Old French nusche (with metanalysis), from a Germanic source; compare German Nusche, Proto-Germanic *hnuts.

noun

1. (historical or poetic) A brooch or clasp for fastening a piece of clothing together, especially when valuable or set with jewels.
   There would be no pelts of the reindeer, flung down at thy cave for a gift, / Nor dole of the oily timber that strands with the Baltic drift; / No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale; / No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale. 1896, Rudyard Kipling, “The Story of Ung”, in Seven Seas