flitch means the flank or side of an animal, now almost exclusively a pig when cured and salted; a side of bacon. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
flitch is pronounced /flɪtʃ/.
Why “flitch” is a great word
FLITCH — [Noun] A side of bacon, salted and cured whole, or a long, thick slice of wood cut lengthwise from a tree trunk. From Middle English flicche, from Old English fliċċe ('side of an animal, flitch'), from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją ('side, flitch'), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- ('to tear, peel off'). Attested before 900. Unlike a 'slab'—a broad, impersonal chunk—or 'gammon'—the cured hind leg—a flitch is a specific anatomical portion defined by its longitudinal integrity. It is the smoked, mahogany-red side of pork hanging in a chimney's gloom; the great, bark-edged beam, still smelling of sap, fresh from the sawmill; the prize awarded for a year of marital peace—a unit of sustenance and structure, of preserved flesh and foundational timber, reminding us that what we build with and live upon often comes from the same cleaving of the world.
Etymology
From Middle English flicche, from Old English fliċċe (“side of an animal, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją (“side, flitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognate with Low German flikke, French flèche, Icelandic flikki (“flitch”), Middle Low German vlicke.
noun
- The flank or side of an animal, now almost exclusively a pig when cured and salted; a side of bacon.“The following morning before Nicholas awoke, Mulvey walked all the way to the village of Letterfrack, returning with a basket of cabbages and a flitch of bacon, two loaves of fresh bread and a plump broiling chicken.”
- A piece or strip cut off of something else, generally a piece of wood (timber).“The Measure of a shell or Flitch of Timber.
If a piece be taken out of the middle of a round piece of Timber from end to end; there will be left two pieces, which they call Shells or Flitches.”
verb
- To cut into, or off in, flitches or strips.“to flitch logs”