Chichevache
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See also: chichevache
Middle English
Etymology
From Old French chicheface (“Chichevache”), from chiche (“miserly”) + face (“face”). The second element was assimilated to vache (“cow”) in English, probably by Chaucer.
Proper noun
Chichevache
- A legendary cow of enormous size, whose food was patient and obedient wives, and which was therefore in very lean condition.
- a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerk's Tale
- "O noble wives, full of high prudence, / Let no humility your tongues nail: / Nor let no clerk have cause or diligence / To write of you a story of such marvail, / As of Griselda patient and kind, / Lest Chichevache you swallow in her entrail.
- a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerk's Tale