English

A glass of absinthe which has been louched (verb sense) with water

Adjective

louche ‎(comparative more louche, superlative most louche)

1. Of questionable taste or morality; decadent.
   • 2012 February 25, “The other half lives: The transatlantic appeal of the British ruling classes”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 28 April 2016:

     Upstairs Downstairs hosts the Kennedys and Wallis Simpson (these days, in British culture, the archetypal louche American).

   • 2016 May 23, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Apocalypse pits the strengths of the X-Men series against the weaknesses”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 24 May 2016:

     Ever since X-Men: First Class set the series' clock back a few decades and installed Michael Fassbender's moody Magneto and James McAvoy's louche Charles Xavier as replacements for Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart's chess-playing pappies, the big-screen X-Men's central conflict—Xavier's Booker T. Washington-esque School For Gifted Youngsters vs. a rogue's gallery of evil mutants, crew cuts, and politicos—has gotten a lot murkier.

2. Not reputable or decent.
   • 1888, Henry James, “The Aspern Papers”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume LXI, Boston, Mass.: Atlantic Monthly Co., OCLC 412030383, page 304:

     The aunt will refuse; she will think the whole proceeding very louche!

3. Unconventional and slightly disreputable in an attractive manner; raffish, rakish.
   • 2007 September 9, Guy Trebay, “Who will pull together the collections?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 3 November 2015:

     Anyone inside the business can also tell you that without Carine Roitfeld's louche sexy styling Tom Ford's Gucci might easily have come off looking like a high-end Club Monaco.

Verb

louche ‎(third-person singular simple present louches, present participle louching, simple past and past participle louched)

1. (intransitive) Of alcoholic beverages, particularly anise-flavoured ones like absinthe and ouzo: to become cloudy when mixed with water, due to the presence of anethole. This is known as the ouzo effect.

   Certain anise-flavored drinks have developed a mystique based on the exotic appearance of louching.‎

   • 2010, Paul Owens; Paul Nathan; Dave Herlong, The Little Green Book of Absinthe: An Essential Companion with Lore, Trivia, and Classic and Contemporary Cocktails, New York, N.Y.: Perigee Books, ISBN 978-0-399-53563-5:

     In distillation, the first few liters of absinthe to come out of the still are called the head; the last few liters are the tail. The head and tail don't have enough alcohol to keep the oils in suspension, so the absinthe comes out of the still louched.

   • 2012, Heather E. Hutsell, chapter 1, in Blood Mettle, [s.l.]: Fatty Baby Cat Publishing, ISBN 978-1-105-63668-4, page 2:

     I found a little corner to stand in and pretended to sip my own louched absinthe.

   • 2015, Jason Sizemore, For Exposure: The Life and Times of a Small Press Publisher, Lexington, Ky.: Apex Publishers, ISBN 978-193-7009-31-1:

     Ah, Mr. Sizemore, the green fairy is best prepared carefully and slowly to appreciate its full potential. Simply fill the fountain with iced water, place your glass of absinthe below the spigot with a single sugar cube placed over a slotted spoon and adjust the tap to your desired flow. The cold water will gradually dissolve the sugar and mix with the absinthe in a process known as louching.

Translations

See also

• Ouzo effect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /luʃ/

Etymology 1

From Old French lousche, from Latin lusca, feminine of luscus ‎(“one-eyed”) ( > Old French lois). Compare Italian losco and Portuguese lusco.

Adjective

louche m, f ‎(plural louches)

1. (dated) cross-eyed
2. (by extension) cloudy; obscure
3. (figuratively) shady; dubious; seedy; shifty

Noun

louche f ‎(plural louches)

1. (in a liquid) cloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles

Etymology 2

A dialectal (Norman-Picard) form of Old French louce, loce, from Old Frankish *lōtija, from Proto-Germanic *hlōþþijō. Cognate with Dutch loet ‎(“a tool to scrape or shovel”). More at loot.

Noun

louche f ‎(plural louches)

1. ladle

Etymology 3

Regular conjugation of -er verb loucher

Verb

louche

1. first-person singular present indicative of loucher
2. third-person singular present indicative of loucher
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of loucher
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of loucher
5. second-person singular imperative of loucher