different between flak vs blame

English

Alternative forms

• flack (adverse criticism and spokesperson senses)

Etymology

Borrowed from German FlaK, short for Fliegerabwehrkanone (“anti aeroplane cannon”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

flak (countable and uncountable, plural flaks)

1. Ground-based anti-aircraft guns firing explosive shells. [from 1938]

   Synonyms: ack-ack, AAA, triple-A

   • 1964, David John Cawdell Irving, The Destruction of Dresden, page 74,

     […] to consider whether the city was in February 1945 an undefended city within the meaning of the 1907 Hague Convention, it will be necessary to examine the establishment and subsequent total dispersal of the city's flak batteries, before the date of the triple blow.

   • 2007, Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr., Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944, footnote, page 30,

     He was promoted to general of flak artillery on March 1, 1945, and ended the war as the general of the flak arm at OKL, the High Command of the Luftwaffe.

2. Anti-aircraft shell fire. [from 1940]

   Synonym: ack-ack

   • 1943 November 29, Target: Germany, in Life, page 80,

     At 1057 we were just over the islands and at 1100 the tail gunner reported flak at six o'clock, below.

   • 1984, Steve Harris, "Aces High", Iron Maiden, Powerslave.

   • 1999, Brian O'Neill, Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer, page 118,

     I could hear the fragments from the flak shells hitting the plane like someone throwing rocks at it.

3. (figuratively, informal) Adverse criticism. [from 1963]
   • 1990, Joel H. Spring, The American School, 1642-1990, page 380,

     This filter Herman and Chomsky call “flak,” which refers to letters, speeches, phone calls, and other forms of group and individual complaints. Advertisers and broadcasters avoid programming content that might cause large volumes of flak.
4. (informal) A public-relations spokesperson.
   • 2006, Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, A Propaganda Model, in 2006 [2001], Meenakshi Gigi Durham, Douglas Kellner (editors), Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, revised edition, page 277,

     AIM head, Reed Irvine's diatribes are frequently published, and right-wing network flaks who regularly assail the “liberal media,” such as Michael Ledeen, are given Op-ed column space, sympathetic reviews, and a regular place on talk shows as experts.

Translations

See also

• flak jacket

Anagrams

• KLFA, falk

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *awa-laka, from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“to jump, scuttle”) (compare Norwegian lakka (“to hop, patter about”), Latvian lèkt (“to spring, jump”), Ancient Greek ????? (l?ká?, “to dance to music”).

Verb

flak (first-person singular past tense flaka, participle flakur)

1. to throw, hurl, toss, fling off
2. to smack
3. (figuratively) to cast off, eject
4. (figuratively) to renounce, reject

Related terms

• fletë

References

Icelandic

Etymology

Borrowed through German flach (“flat”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fla?k/
• Rhymes: -a?k

Noun

flak n (genitive singular flaks, nominative plural flök)

1. wreck
2. filet, (UK) fillet (of fish)

Declension

Synonyms

• (wreck): rekald n
• (a fish fillet): flak af fiski n

Derived terms

• flaka

See also

• lundir (of beef etc.)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse flaga, flak

Noun

flak n (definite singular flaket, indefinite plural flak, definite plural flaka or flakene)

1. a flake
2. floe (of ice)
3. tail (of a garment; coat tail, shirt tail)

Derived terms

• isflak

References

• “flak” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “flak_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “flak_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse flaga, flak. Akin to English flake.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fl??k/

Noun

flak n (definite singular flaket, indefinite plural flak, definite plural flaka)

1. a flake
2. floe (of ice)
3. tail (of a garment; coat tail, shirt tail)

Derived terms

• isflak
• snøflak

References

• “flak” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Plautdietsch

Adjective

flak

1. shallow (not deep)

Polish

Etymology

From Middle High German vlëcke.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /flak/

Noun

flak m inan

1. sausage casing made from animal intestine
2. (informal) flat tire
3. (colloquial) innard, entrail

Declension

Related terms

• flaki

Further reading

• flak in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed through German flach (“flat”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

Noun

flak n

1. a flat object, a floe, a flatbed
2. a bed, the (open) cargo area of a vehicle (e.g. truck, lorry, pickup truck, dump truck, tip truck)

Declension

Related terms

• flakbil
• flakcykel
• flakmoped
• isflak
• lastbilsflak
• tippflak

Anagrams

• falk

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ble?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Etymology 1

From Middle English blame, borrowed from Old French blame, blasme, produced from the verb blasmer, which in turn is derived from Vulgar Latin *blast?m?re, present active infinitive of *blast?m?, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin blasph?m?, ultimately from Ancient Greek ????????? (blasph?mé?). Replaced common use of native wite (“blame, guilt, wrongdoing, offense, fine, punishment”) (from Middle English w?tan, from Middle English w?te). Doublet of blaspheme.

Noun

blame (uncountable)

1. Censure.

   Blame came from all directions.

2. Culpability for something negative or undesirable.

   The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.

3. Responsibility for something meriting censure.

   They accepted the blame, but it was an accident.

4. (computing) A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code.

Derived terms

• blame game
• put the blame on

Translations

See also

• fault

Etymology 2

From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasph?m? (“to reproach, to revile”), from Ancient Greek ????????? (blasph?mé?). Compare blaspheme, a doublet. Overtook common use from the native wite (“to blame, accuse, reproach, suspect”) (from Middle English w?ten, from Old English w?tan).

Verb

blame (third-person singular simple present blames, present participle blaming, simple past and past participle blamed)

1. To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].

   • 1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:

     That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary. The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.

   • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador 2007, p. 106:

     I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming.

2. (obsolete) To bring into disrepute.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.

3. (transitive, usually followed by "for") To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).

   The arsonist was blamed for the fire.

Synonyms

• (censure; criticize): reproach, shend, take to task, upbraid
• (consider that someone is the cause of something negative): hold to account

Derived terms

• blamer, be to blame

Translations

Anagrams

• Amble, Embla, Lambe, Mabel, Mable, Melba, amble, belam, melba

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old French blasme, a deverbal noun from blasmer (“to criticise”).

Alternative forms

• blam (rare)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bla?m(?)/

Noun

blame (uncountable)

1. criticism, condemnation
2. accusation (especially legal)
3. blame, culpability
4. offence, misdeed
5. imperfection, downside
6. disrepute, dishonour
7. blasphemy, irreverence

Descendants

• English: blame
• Scots: blame

References

• “bl?me, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

blame

1. Alternative form of blamen

Walloon

Noun

blame f (plural blames)

1. flame

   Synonym: flame