different between lackey vs lacke

English

Alternative forms

• lacquey, lacky

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French laquais, which is probably (via Old Occitan lacai?) from Spanish lacayo, itself perhaps from Italian lacchè and Greek ????? (lakés), from Turkish ulak. Another possibility is through French, from Catalan alacay, from Arabic ??????????? (al-q???, “magistrate”). See French laquais.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?læ.ki/
• Rhymes: -æki

Noun

lackey (plural lackeys)

1. A footman, a liveried male servant.
   • 1820, Charles Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer, volume 1, page 198:

     My dearest father,—I say nothing of them,—but I dare to speak of myself,—I can never be a monk,—if that is your object—spurn me,—order your lacqueys to drag me from this carriage,—leave me a beggar in the streets to cry “fire and water,”—but do not make me a monk.
2. A fawning, servile follower.

   Synonyms: lickspittle; see also Thesaurus:loyal follower

Derived terms

• lackey caterpillar
• lackey moth

Translations

Verb

lackey (third-person singular simple present lackeys, present participle lackeying, simple past and past participle lackeyed)

1. (transitive) To attend, wait upon, serve obsequiously.
   • ca. 1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. 3:

     [T]he ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love,

     Comes deared by being lacked. This common body,

     Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

     Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,

     To rot itself with motion.

   • 1634, John Milton. Comus:

     So dear to Heav'n is Saintly chastity,

     That when a soul is found sincerely so,

     A thousand liveried Angels lacky her ...

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To toady, play the flunky.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “lackey”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• Ackley

English

Verb

lacke

1. Obsolete spelling of lack

Noun

lacke (plural lackes)

1. Obsolete spelling of lack

Anagrams

• Aleck, clake

German

Pronunciation

Verb

lacke

1. inflection of lacken:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative