different between blank vs lacuna

English

Etymology

From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?ley?- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blæ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker or more blank, superlative blankest or most blank)

1. (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in

   blank paper

   a blank check

   a blank ballot

   a blank CD

3. (sports) Scoreless; without any goals or points.
4. (figuratively) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.

   a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness

5. Absolute; downright; sheer.

   There was a look of blank terror on his face.

   a blank refusal to cooperate

6. Without expression.

   Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.

7. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
8. Empty; void; without result; fruitless.

9. Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

10. (military) Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.

Descendants

• Belizean Creole: blank

Translations

Noun

blank (plural blanks)

1. (archaic, historical, obsolete) A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers; also a silver coin of Henry V current in the parts of France then held by the English, worth about 8 pence [15th–17th century].

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
2. (obsolete) A nonplus [16th century].
3. The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim [since the 16th century].
4. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated [since the 16th century].
5. An empty space; a void, for example on a paper [since the 16th century].
   1. A space to be filled in on a form or template.

      Write your answers in the blanks.

   2. Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form will be settled in Committee [since the 19th century].
6. (now chiefly US) A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled up at the pleasure of the person to whom it is given (e.g. a blank charter, ballot, form, contract, etc.), or as the event may determine; a blank form [since the 16th century].
   1. An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all [since the 17th century].
   2. An unprinted leaf of a book [20th century].
7. (literature) Blank verse [since the 16th century].
8. (mechanics, engineering) A piece of metal (such as a coin, screw, nuts), cut and shaped to the required size of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping [since the 16th century].
   1. Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required [since the 19th century].
   2. (electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus [20th century].
9. (figuratively) A vacant space, place, or period; a void [since the 17th century].
10. The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain [17th century].
11. An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory [since the 18th century].
12. A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word [since the 18th century]
13. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
14. (dominoes) A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.

    the double blank

    the six blank

15. (firearms) Short for blank cartridge. [since the 19th century].
16. (figuratively, in the expression ‘shooting blanks’, sports) An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
    1. (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
    2. (slang) Infertile semen.

Synonyms

• (bullet that doesn't harm): blank cartridge, blank bullet

Translations

Verb

blank (third-person singular simple present blanks, present participle blanking, simple past and past participle blanked)

1. (transitive) To make void; to erase.

   I blanked out my previous entry.

2. (transitive, slang) To ignore (a person) deliberately.

   She blanked me for no reason.

3. (transitive, aviation, of a control surface) To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or reverse thrust.

4. (transitive) To prevent from scoring, for example in a sporting event.

   The team was blanked.

   England blanks Wales to advance to the final.

5. (intransitive) To become blank.
6. (intransitive) To be temporarily unable to remember.

   I'm blanking on her name right now.

Usage notes

• Almost any sense of this can occur with out. See blank out.

Translations

Derived terms

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch blank.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bla?k/

Adjective

blank (attributive blanke, comparative blanker, superlative blankste)

1. white
2. White; Caucasian

Antonyms

• swart

Dalmatian

Adjective

blank m (plural blanke, feminine blanka)

1. Alternative form of blanc

Danish

Adjective

blank

1. shiny, reflective, glossy

   Antonym: mat

2. (of e.g. paper) empty, blank, bearing no inscription or drawings
3. (colloquial) broke (without money)

   Synonym: flad

4. (colloquial) ignorant, clueless

Inflection

References

• “blank” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch blanc, from Old Dutch *blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl??k/
• Hyphenation: blank
• Rhymes: -??k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker, superlative blankst)

1. white, pale
2. white (having a light skin tone)

Inflection

Derived terms

• blank staan
• blankvoorn

Descendants

• Afrikaans: blank

German

Etymology

From Middle High German blanc, from Old High German blanc (“shining, bright”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz. Doublet of Plenk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bla?k/
• Rhymes: -a?k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker, superlative am blanksten)

1. (archaic) bright
2. spotlessly clean; shining; polished

3. bare; naked; uncovered

4. pure; sheer

5. (colloquial) broke; out of money
6. (card games) being a player’s last one of a respective grouping of cards (which means that the card is unprotected when the player must follow suit in trick-taking games)

Declension

Derived terms

• blitzblank

Further reading

• “blank” in Duden online

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank.

Adjective

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankere, indefinite superlative blankest, definite superlative blankeste)

1. glossy, shining, shiny
2. bright, clear, glittering, sunny
3. blank (e.g. cheque, paper, mind)

Derived terms

• speilblank

References

• “blank” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “blank_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl??k/

Adjective

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankare, indefinite superlative blankast, definite superlative blankaste)

1. shiny, reflective

   Dei pussa sølvtøyet så det vart blankt.

   They shined the silver until it was shiny.

2. exactly, point zero (of time)

   Han sprang 100 meter på ti blank.

   He ran 100 meters in ten point zero seconds.

3. blank, empty

   Ho gav dottera eit blankt ark til å teikna på.

   She gave her daughter a blank piece of paper to draw on.

4. without knowledge about something

   Eg er heilt blank om dette temaet.

   I know nothing about this subject.

References

• “blank” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank, from Old Saxon blank, from Proto-West Germanic *blank.

Adjective

blank

1. shiny, lustrous, glittering

Swedish

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank, from Old Saxon blank, from Proto-West Germanic *blank. Displaced native Swedish black, from Old Norse blakkr.

Adjective

blank (comparative blankare, superlative blankast)

1. reflective, shiny
2. smooth

Inflection

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lac?na (“ditch, gap”), diminutive form of lacus (“lake”). Doublet of lagoon.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /l??kju?.n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /l??ku?.n?/, /l??kju?.n?/
• ,

Noun

lacuna (plural lacunae or lacunæ or lacunas)

1. A small opening; a small pit or depression.
2. A small blank space; a gap or vacancy; a hiatus.
3. An absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing, often referring to an ancient manuscript or similar.

4. Any gap, break, hole, or lack in a set of things; something missing.
5. (microscopy) A space visible between cells, allowing free passage of light.
6. (translation studies) A language gap, which occurs when there is no direct translation in the target language for a lexical term found in the source language.

Synonyms

• hiatus
• gap
• (translation studies): anisomorphism

Derived terms

• lacunal
• lacunar
• lacunary
• lacunose

Translations

Anagrams

• canula

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lac?na. Compare the inherited doublet laguna.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la?ku.na/
• Rhymes: -una

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacune)

1. gap
2. blank (space)
3. lapse (of memory)

Derived terms

• cunetta

Further reading

• lacuna in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• alcuna
• lucana

Latin

Etymology

From lacus (“lake, basin”).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /la?ku?.na/, [??ä?ku?nä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /la?ku.na/, [l??ku?n?]

Noun

lac?na f (genitive lac?nae); first declension

1. a hole, pit
2. an opening, cavity, hollow, cleft
3. a gap, void, defect

Declension

First-declension noun.

Derived terms

• lac?nar
• lac?n?rius
• lac?n?
• lac?n?sus

Descendants

References

• lacuna in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• lacuna in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lacuna in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• lacuna in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• lacuna in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• lacuna in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700?^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lac?na. Compare the inherited lagoa and laguna.

Noun

lacuna f (plural lacunas)

1. hiatus (gap in a series)

   Synonym: hiato

2. blank (space to be filled in)

Related terms

• lagoa

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [la?kuna]

Noun

lacuna f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of lacun?