different between flak vs flam

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): /flæm/

Etymology 1

17th century; from flim-flam, itself perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).

Noun

flam (countable and uncountable, plural flams)

1. A freak or whim; an idle fancy.
2. (archaic) A falsehood; a lie; an illusory pretext

   Synonyms: deception, delusion

   • 1692, Robert South, "A Further Account of the Nature and Measures of Conscience", in Forty Eight Sermons and Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions (published 1697)

     all Pretences, or Pleas of Conscience, to the contrary, are nothing but Cant and Cheat, Flam and Delusion.

   • a perpetual abuse and flam upon posterity

Translations

Verb

flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)

1. (obsolete) To deceive with a falsehood.

   • God is not to be flammed off with Lyes.

Translations

Etymology 2

Imitative.

Noun

flam (plural flams)

1. (drumming) Two taps (a grace note followed by a full-volume tap) played very close together in order to sound like one slightly longer note.

Derived terms

• flam paradiddle, flamadiddle

Verb

flam (third-person singular simple present flams, present participle flamming, simple past and past participle flammed)

1. (drumming, transitive, intransitive) To play (notes as) a flam.
   • 1923, Edward B. Straight, The Straight System of Modern Drumming: The "Natural Way" to Play Drums, page 10:

     We will commence to flam the notes now, as most of them are flammed when you play a March.

   • 1975, George Shipway, Free Lance, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P (?ISBN):

     Drums ruffled and flammed.

References

Anagrams

• FMLA

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?flam/

Noun

flam m (plural flams)

1. flan (custard dessert)

Further reading

• “flam” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “flam” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “flam” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “flam” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Volapük

Noun

flam (nominative plural flams)

1. flame

Declension