urchin
English
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
urchin
- /ˈɜːtʃɪn/ UK
- /ˈɜːtʃən/ UK
- /ˈɝt͡ʃɪn/ US
- /ˈɝt͡ʃən/ US
Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)tʃɪn
Where it comes from
From Middle English yrchoun, irchoun (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Old Northern French irechon, from Vulgar Latin *ērīciōnem, from Latin ērīcius. Compare modern French hérisson, whence the English doublet herisson.
noun urchins · urchon
- A hedgehog.
- A mischievous elf supposed sometimes to take the form of a hedgehog. We'll dress [them] like urchins, ouphes, and fairies.
- A mischievous child. And like these fresh green things were the dozens of babies, tots, toddlers, noisy urchins, laughing girls, a whole multitude of children of one family. For Collier Brandt, the father of all this numerous progeny, was a Mormon with four wives.
- A street urchin, a child who lives, or spends most of their time, in the streets. And the urchins that stand with their thievish eyes / Forever on watch ran off each with a prize.
- A sea urchin.
- One of a pair in a series of small card cylinders arranged around a carding drum; so called from its fancied resemblance to the hedgehog. Here we have a carding-engine, with the drum surmounted with urchin or squirrel cards[…]
- A neutron-generating device that triggered the nuclear detonation of the earliest plutonium atomic bombs.
Translations
Every language
noun mischievous child
| Español | gamín, gamina, golfillo |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 小汚いガキ kogitanai gaki |
| Português | moleque |
| Français | garnement |
| Deutsch | Bengel, Lümmel, Lausbube, Racker, Schlingel, Göre |
| Italiano | monello, birichino, peste, discolo, lazzarone |
| Ελληνικά | διαβολάκι diavoláki, παλιόπαιδο paliópaido |
| Română | ștrengar |
| Русский | прока́зник prokáznik, баловни́к balovník, озорни́к ozorník |
Talk about this word "urchin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/urchin. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. urchin. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/urchin "urchin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/urchin.Cite this
@misc{urchin_2026,
title = {urchin},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/urchin},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
