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."
Dictionary.com Word of the Day
