Yuke

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Dialect word meaning to feel an irritating itch on the skin that prompts scratching
2. Used in some regional English to describe the prickling discomfort of skin that wants to be scratched
3. Means to itch, causing a persistent tingling irritation on the surface of the body

Etymology: "Yuke" is a northern English word for itch, and it is a close cousin of "itch" itself. Both descend from the same Germanic root, which is why they are called doublets: two forms of one word that reached English by different routes. The northern Middle English form was probably something like "ȝuken" or "ȝokken", which came from Middle Dutch "jucken" or "jocken", meaning "to itch". That Dutch word traces back through Old Dutch to a Proto-West Germanic verb with the same sense, so the English and Dutch words share an ancestry stretching back many centuries before either was written down. The medieval English record gives a telling detail. Alongside the verb, speakers used "yuke" as a noun for an itching disease, and the related "ȝukynge" meant the itching sensation itself. The word thus names both the sensation and the condition that causes it, a usage that is easy to overlook in modern dictation.