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cache (n.)1797, "hiding place," from French Canadian trappers' slang, "hiding place for stores and provisions" (1660s), a back-formation from French cacher "to hide, conceal" (13c., Old French cachier), from Vulgar Latin *coacticare "store up, collect, compress," frequentative of Latin coactare "constrain," from coactus, past participle of cogere "to collect," literally "to drive together," from com- "together" (see co-) + agere "to set in motion, drive; to do, perform" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move"). Sense extended by 1830s to "anything stored in a hiding place."
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cachectic (adj.)"pertaining to or characteristic of a bad state of bodily health," 1630s, perhaps via French cachectique (16c.), from Latinized form of Greek kakhektikos "in a bad habit of body" (see cachexia). Cachectical is from 1620s.
Related entries & more cachet (n.)1630s, "a seal," Scottish borrowing of French cachet "seal affixed to a letter or document" (16c.), from Old French dialectal cacher "to press, crowd," from Latin coactare "constrain" (see cache). Meaning evolved 18c. (via French lettre de cachet "letter under seal of the king") to "(letter under) personal stamp (of the king)," thence to "symbol of prestige" (1840).
Related entries & more cachexia (n.)"bad general state of health," 1550s (from 1540s in Englished form cachexy), from Latinized form of Greek kakhexia "bad habits," from kakos "bad" (from PIE root *kakka- "to defecate") + -exia, related to exis "habit or state," from exein "to have, be in a condition," from PIE root *segh- "to hold." Related: cachexic.
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cachinnate (v.)"to laugh loudly or immoderately," 1824, from Latin cachinnatum, past participle of cachinnare (see cachinnation). Related: Cachinnated; cachinnating.
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Related entries & more "loud laughter," 1620s, from Latin cachinnationem (nominative cachinnatio) "violent laughter, excessive laughter," noun of action from past-participle stem of cachinnare "to laugh immoderately or loudly," of imitative origin. Compare Sanskrit kakhati "laughs," Greek kakhazein "to laugh loudly," Old High German kachazzen, English cackle, Armenian xaxanc'.
cack (n.)"excrement, act of voiding excrement," Old English (in cac-hus); as a verb, "to void excrement," mid-15c., from Latin cacare (see caca). Related: Cacked; cacking. Cack-handed (also cag-handed) "left-handed; awkward" is from 1854.
Related entries & more cackle (n.)1670s, "sound made by a hen or goose," from cackle (v.). From 1856 as "a short laugh." Cackleberries, slang for "eggs" is first recorded 1880.
Related entries & more cackle (v.)early 13c., imitative of the noise of a hen (see cachinnation); perhaps partly based on Middle Dutch kake "jaw," with frequentative suffix -el (3). As "to laugh," 1712. Related: Cackled; cackling.
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