bethatch

English

Alternative forms

• bithecche (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English bithecchen, from Old English beþeċċan (“to cover; protect; cover over; conceal”), from Proto-West Germanic *biþakkjan, equivalent to be- +‎ thatch. Cognate with Dutch bedekken (“to cover”), German bedecken (“to cover”). More at its doublet bedeck. Alteration in vowel after Middle English perhaps due to thatch.

Verb

bethatch (third-person singular simple present bethatches, present participle bethatching, simple past and past participle bethatched) (now uncommon)

1. (transitive) To cover with thatch; to thatch.
   • 1865, Richard Francis Burton (sir.), Stone talk:

     Part it behind, like terrier's back, Bethatch the front like wheaten stack, […]

2. (transitive, by extension, humorous, nonce word) To cover with hair.
   • 1969, Henry Robinson Luce, Gordon Parks, Life:

     Both are coolly intense, well bethatched, bell-bottomed and bespectacled.

   • 1996, Kerry Segrave, Baldness: a social history:

     Baldies did not like their condition: "Witness their frantic efforts to keep among the ranks of the bethatched. […] "