Nuque

Word of the Day for Thursday, February 14, 2013

Nuque \nook\, noun:

the back of the neck.

She wore a figured lawn, cut a little low in the back, that exposed a round, soft nuque with a few little clinging circlets of soft, brown hair.
-- Kate Chopin, "A Night in Acadie," The Complete Works of Kate Chopin

If he had been a Frenchman he would have seized her in his arms and told her passionately that he adored her; he would have pressed his lips on her nuque.
-- William Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

Nuque originated in the late 1500s from the French nucha for "nape," though its earliest origin is Arabic nukhā referring to "spinal marrow."

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