[‘ The nape of the neck.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /njuːk/, U.S. /n(j)uk/
Etymology: < Middle French, French /nuque/ the nape of the neck (1546; earlier in sense ‘spinal cord’ (1377; attested earlier in this sense as /nuche/ nuche n.)) < post-classical Latin /nucha/ nucha n. Compare earlier nuche n., nuke n.1
N.E.D. (1907) gives the pronunciation as (n/ü/k) nyk.
*1.* The nape of the neck.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens /Niewe Herball/ ii. cvi. 310 If it be applied to the nuque, or nape of the necke, it restoreth the speach.
1876 /Fraser’s Mag./ Jan. 111/1 The juncture of the hand and wrist, of foot and ankle, of the nuque with the back and shoulders.
1886 F. H. H. Guillemard /Cruise Marchesa/ II. 186 The latter is a fine bird,..a curious tawny patch upon the nuque.
1915 W. S. Maugham /Of Human Bondage/ xxxiii. 149 He did not know why Frenchmen always kissed ladies on the nuque.
1943 J. Lees-Milne /Jrnl./ 17 Aug. in /Ancestral Voices/ (1975) 228 Her hair was brushed off her nuque into a bob on the crown of her head.
1969 V. Nabokov /Ada/ i. xxxiii. 207 He had buried his mouth in Ada’s nuque, when she stiffened and raised a warning finger.
2000 /Independent/ (Nexis) 27 June 5 Margaret the idealist,..her wonderful red-brown hair piled irresistibly above her nuque.
†*2.* A hairstyle (see quot. 1884). Obs./ /rare.
1884 /Western Daily Press/ 29 May 3/7 A new device of the hairdresser, called a nuque, and consisting of the semblance of an abundant chevelure, drawn up from the neck [etc.].