Etymology From Middle English flicche, from Old English fliċċe (“side of an animal, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją (“side, flitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognate with Low German flikke, French flèche, Icelandic flikki (“flitch”), Middle Low German vlicke.
1
The flank or side of an animal, now almost exclusively a pig when cured and salted; a side of bacon.
The following morning before Nicholas awoke, Mulvey walked all the way to the village of Letterfrack, returning with a basket of cabbages and a flitch of bacon, two loaves of fresh bread and a plump broiling chicken.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 95:
The programme was loosely derived from a folk tradition, the Great Dunmow Flitch, in which the most happily married couple in the village were rewarded with a gift of a flitch of beef.2004, Dominic Strinati, Stephen Wagg, Come on Down?: Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain, Routledge, →ISBN, page 186:
2
A piece or strip cut off of something else, generally a piece of wood (timber).
The Measure of a shell or Flitch of Timber. If a piece be taken out of the middle of a round piece of Timber from end to end; there will be left two pieces, which they call Shells or Flitches.1706, Henry Coggeshall, The Art of Practical Measuring … The Third Edition, Corrected, page 39:
An edge chipper chips waney edges of a flitch of timber having parallel top and bottom sides, the flitch passing through feed roll pairs extends outward as a cantilever as it moves towards revolving chipper ...1972, United States. Patent Office, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office: Patents, page 130:
Etymology From Middle English flicche, from Old English fliċċe (“side of an animal, flitch”), from Proto-Germanic *flikkiją (“side, flitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁ḱ- (“to tear, peel off”). Cognate with Low German flikke, French flèche, Icelandic flikki (“flitch”), Middle Low German vlicke.