different between clack vs flack

English

Etymology

From Middle English clacken, clakken, claken, from Old English *clacian (“to slap, clap, clack”), from Proto-Germanic *klak?n? (“to clap, chirp”). Cognate with Scots clake, claik (“to utter cries", also "to bedaub, sully with a sticky substance”), Dutch klakken (“to clack, crack”), Low German klakken (“to slap on, daub”), Norwegian klakke (“to clack, strike, knock”), Icelandic klaka (“to twitter, chatter, wrangle, dispute”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klæk/

Noun

clack (plural clacks)

1. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.
2. Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.
3. Chatter; prattle.

   • whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack

4. (colloquial) The tongue.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clack (third-person singular simple present clacks, present participle clacking, simple past and past participle clacked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
2. (transitive) To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
3. To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)
4. (Britain) To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.
5. Dated form of cluck.
   • 1934, Gladys Bagg Taber, Late Climbs the Sun (page 30)

     Only the chickens clacked at the Saturday quiet and fat mouse-minded cats licked whiskers on the empty steps.

   • 1964, Frances Margaret Cheadle McGuire, Gardens of Italy (page 57)

     We drive on between meadows of mown grass, through a pergola of vines, and so to an orchard of peaches, apples, and pears and a hen colony housed in neat modern cottages, the chickens clacking and scratching away […]

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flæk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophone: flak

Etymology 1

From Middle English flacken (“to palpitate, flutter”), from Proto-Germanic *flakk?n (“to swerve”), from Proto-Indo-European *ple?-, which could be related to Ancient Greek ????? (pláz?, “to turn away from”).

Akin to Middle Dutch vlacken (“to flicker, flash, sparkle”), Danish flakke (“to wander”), Swedish flacka (“to rove, rove about, ramble”), Icelandic flakka (“to move”). Compare also Icelandic flaka (“to flap, hang loose”), Swedish flaxa (“to flap, flutter”).

Verb

flack (third-person singular simple present flacks, present participle flacking, simple past and past participle flacked)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To flutter; palpitate.
2. (intransitive, Britain dialectal) To hang loosely; flag.
3. (transitive, Britain dialectal) To beat by flapping.

Etymology 2

Unknown

Noun

flack (plural flacks)

1. (Canada, US) A publicist, a publicity agent.
   • 1999, Patricia Cornwell, The Southern Cross, page 233

     Thought you were flack," she said.

     "I'm not flack."

     "All right, P.R., a reporter, a novelist."

Verb

flack (third-person singular simple present flacks, present participle flacking, simple past and past participle flacked)

1. (Canada, US) To publicise, to promote.

Etymology 3

Variant of flak.

Noun

flack (countable and uncountable, plural flacks)

1. Alternative spelling of flak.

Further reading

• flack at OneLook Dictionary Search
• flack in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Falck