Affrick

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A speech sound that begins like a stop, with the airflow fully blocked, then releases slowly as a hiss, as in the ch of church
2. A consonant produced by closing the mouth briefly and then letting air escape with friction, like the sounds at the start of chair or jump
3. The compound consonant in phonetics that combines a plosive onset with a fricative release, heard in the opening sounds of judge and cheese

Etymology: Affrick is a Scots word, and its meaning is among the more unusual in the language: it is a variant of "africk" or "affrick" used for a bright, lively or pleasing fellow, and it is best known as a term for a deliberate, showy kind of youngster or a spirited horse. Its origin is uncertain. It is generally traced to a Scots form connected with the older word "affrick" meaning a "dear" or "pleasing" thing, but the exact pathway is not well documented, so readers should treat any firm claim about its ancestry with caution. Dictionary records of the word in Scots are sparse, and it appears mainly in regional and dialect collections rather than in the standard literary record of English. Because of this, scholars have not settled on a single source, and the word's development is best understood as a local Scots survival rather than a term that spread through the wider language.