Etymology: < Old French teche (11th cent.), tesche, tece, tecce, taiche, teiche, teke, teqe (Godefroy); also French tache (12th cent. in Godefroy Compl.), †tasche. The French word is of uncertain origin, but, according to Hatzfeld & Darmesteter, is to be distinguished from the radical tac of tache n.², attach n., etc., with which earlier etymologists have associated it.

Etymology: < Old French tache fibula (14th cent.), also a large nail: compare Genevese tache , Languedoc tacho nail with broad round head, hob-nail, tack, tacket, Spanish tacha a kind of nail; also (from Old French) Middle Dutch taetse , Dutch taats , a round-headed nail, an iron pin. A doublet of tack n.¹ The root is also that of French attacher , détacher , English attach n., detach v. See Diez and Littré. Sense 2 may be in origin a different word.

Etymology: apparently < obsolete or dialect French tache , tèche plate of iron (Godefroy), in Walloon tak ‘plaque de fer qu'on applique au fond d'une cheminée’ (Littré), which in French dictionaries is usually identified with tache , tache n.¹

Etymology: Origin obscure.

Etymology: < French tacher, Old French tachier to stain, soil, < tache , tache n.¹

Etymology: < tache n.² 1, or from the same root. In sense 2 (and sometimes in sense 1), apparently aphetic < atache, attach v.

Etymology: Perhaps the same in origin as tache v.²; compare Old French atachier in sense ‘to attack’, Italian attaccare to attach, to attack, and see note to attach v.

Etymology: < tache n.³