Perch

How to spell perch

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce perch

What does perch mean?

1. nounA bar, branch, or other raised spot on which a bird rests.
2. verbTo sit or rest on something, typically a high or narrow surface.
3. nounA spiny-finned freshwater fish often caught by anglers.

Perch in a sentence

• noun

  The parrot returned to its perch inside the cage.

• verb

  She liked to perch on the kitchen stool while reading the paper.

• noun

  He caught a large perch in the lake and grilled it for dinner.

• noun

  A hawk watched the field from a high perch on the fence post.

• verb

  The cottage seemed to perch on the very edge of the cliff.

• noun

  The river is known for its plentiful perch and pike.

Where does perch come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The everyday sense of perch, a bar or rail on which a bird rests, came into English in the early 1300s from the Old French word perche, which itself descended from the Latin pertica, meaning a long pole, staff, or measuring rod. Because a pole laid across a frame made an obvious roost, the word naturally came to mean any raised spot where a bird settles, and from there grew the verb meaning to sit or rest on something high. The same Latin root gave English an old unit of land measurement, the perch (also called a rod or pole), recalling the literal pole once used to mark out ground. The freshwater fish called perch is a separate arrival, reaching English through Latin perca from the Greek perke, a name for that spiny river fish. The two words ended up spelled and sounded identically, which is why a single short, blunt spelling now covers a roost, a fish, and an old surveyor's pole.

How the word is built

• perch (from Latin pertica: a pole or measuring rod)