different between lack vs mack

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

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mæk/

Etymology 1

Clipping of mackerel (“pimp”)

Noun

mack (plural macks)

1. (slang) An individual skilled in the art of seduction using verbal skills.

   She left with him; he must be a true mack.

Derived terms

• mack daddy

Verb

mack (third-person singular simple present macks, present participle macking, simple past and past participle macked)

1. (slang) To act as pimp; to pander.

   Synonyms: hustle, whore out; see also Thesaurus:pimp out

2. (slang) To seduce or flirt with.

   Synonyms: entice, pick up

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of mackintosh

Noun

mack (plural macks)

1. (Britain) A raincoat or mackintosh.

Translations

Etymology 3

Blend of mast +? stack

Noun

mack (plural macks)

1. An element of a ship's superstructure which places the function of a ship's mast on its exhaust stack, adding the skeletal supporting structure to the smokestack to support the mast's complement of functions.

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

mak +? -k

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mat?sk/

Noun

mack m

1. Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale)

Declension

Further reading

• mack in Ernst Muka/Mucke (St. Petersburg and Prague 1911–28): S?ownik dolnoserbskeje r?cy a jeje nar?cow / Wörterbuch der nieder-wendischen Sprache und ihrer Dialekte. Reprinted 2008, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• mack in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski s?ownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.

Swedish

Etymology

Since 1920 from the trademark MACK, the abbreviation for "Mathiasson, Andersson, Collin, Key", the owners of one of the first companies that opened gas stations in Sweden.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mak/

Noun

mack c

1. (somewhat colloquial) gas station

   Synonyms: bensinmack, bensinstation

Declension

References