different between flack vs lack

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

English

Etymology

Middle English, cognate with or from Middle Low German lak, Middle Dutch lac (“deficiency”) and Middle Dutch laken (“blame, lack”); all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laka-, related to *lak(k)?n- (“to blame, reproach”), from Proto-Indo-European *lok-néh?-. See also Dutch lak (“calumny”), Old Norse lakr (“lacking”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /lak/
• (US) IPA^(key): /læk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Noun

lack (countable and uncountable, plural lacks)

1. (obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.
2. A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     […] let his lack of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation;

   • 1994, Green Day, Basket Case

     I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.

Antonyms

• glut
• surplus

Derived terms

• lackless

Translations

Verb

lack (third-person singular simple present lacks, present participle lacking, simple past and past participle lacked)

1. (transitive) To be without, to need, to require.

   My life lacks excitement.

2. (intransitive) To be short (of or for something).

   He'll never lack for company while he's got all that money.

   • c. 1600,, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4,^[2]

     Hamlet. What hour now?

     Horatio. I think it lacks of twelve.

3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be in want.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 34.10,^[3]

     The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger […]

4. (obsolete) To see the deficiency in (someone or something); to find fault with, to malign, reproach.
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, II:

     That is Mede þe Mayde quod she · hath noyed me ful oft / And ylakked my lemman.

Related terms

• lackluster

Translations

Further reading

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) , “lak(k)on-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, ?ISBN, page 325

Anagrams

• calk, kcal

German

Pronunciation

Verb

lack

1. imperative singular of lacken
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of lacken

Swedish

Etymology

From French lacre (“sealing wax”), from Portuguese laca.

Noun

lack n

1. lacquer

Declension

Related terms

• klarlack
• lacknafta
• lackskor
• nagellack