tête-bêche
(tĕt′bĕsh′)adj. Of, relating to, or being a pair of similar objects or images arranged such that one is upside down in relation to the other: a tête-bêche pair of postage stamps.
[French : tête, head (from Old French teste, from Late Latin testa, skull; see tester1) + bêche (short for obsolete béchevet, double head of a bed, from Old French : bes-, twice from Latin bis; see bis + chevet, from Late Latin capitium, opening for the head in a tunic, from Latin, head covering, from caput, capit-, head; see triceps).]
tête′-bêche′ adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
tête-bêche
(tɛtˈbɛʃ) adj (Philately) philately (of an unseparated pair of stamps) printed so that one is inverted in relation to the other
[C19: from French, from tête head + bêche, from obsolete béchevet double-headed (originally of a bed)]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
tête-bêche
(tɛtˈbɛʃ)
adj. of or pertaining to a pair of stamps that have been printed with one stamp inverted.
[1870–75; < French, =tête head + bêche, reduced from béchevet placed with the head of one against the foot of the other]
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