sitch

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English sich, siche, from Old English sīċ (“a watercourse; sike”), from Proto-West Germanic *sīk, from Proto-Germanic *sīką (“slow flowing water; a trickle”).

Alternative forms

• sytch, sitche, sytch (obsolete)
• sich, siche (dialectal)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

sitch (plural sitches)

1. (now chiefly dialectal) A brook; an occasional small waterway: a ditch, a gutter or drain; a ravine.
   • 1908, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, page 107:

     This is the boundary at Earnleie: First from Earesbrook and [qu. to] the short thorns, […] from the pit to Heortseges brook, along the brook to the mouth, and from the mouth to Byinnig-brook, and thence up along the brook to the sitch (i.e. runnel), and from the sitch to Sciteresford, and from the ford to Bromes Combe, […]

Related terms

• sike

Etymology 2

Clipping of situation, with phonetic respelling.

Noun

sitch (plural sitches)

1. (slang) A situation.
   • 2005, Lois H. Gresh, Robert E. Weinberg, The science of supervillains, John Wiley and Sons, page 1:

     So here's the sitch: Bruce Banner and Betty Ross Talbot are falling from roughly eight miles high.

   • 2007, George Bennett Fain, Pandora's Box, Lulu.com, page 159:

     Valeska had insisted 'she' stay, sleep where it was definitely safe. Just 'til the sitch could be settled.

   • 2008, Editors of TEEN magazine, Teen Uncover the Real You: A Quiz Book, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., page 2:

     Maybe one is more introspective and the other is more outgoing. Whatever the sitch, you two balance each other out.

   • 2011 Allen Gregory, "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1):

     Allen Gregory DeLongpre: Great, I'll see you back in there. Also, I wouldn't lose my mind if you decided to chew a stick of gum. Thanks for understanding the sitch, Gina, you're a china doll.

   • 2023 August 31, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn & Sam Johnson & Sarah Naftalis & Paul Simms, “Exit Interview” (6:11 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[1], season 5, episode 10, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

     “First off, I just want to wish you good luck. You're a nice enough guy caught in a bad sitch. I-I don't think any of us were hoping for this outcome for you.”

Etymology 3

Determiner

sitch

1. Pronunciation spelling of such.
   • 1864, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor:

     They stops you on the sly in the streets, and tells you to call at their house at sitch a hour of the day, and when you goes there they smuggles you quietly into some room by yourselves, and then sets to work Jewing away as hard as they can, prizing up their own things, and downcrying yourn.

Anagrams

• Tisch, chist, chits, sicht, stchi, stich