different between shack vs spack

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

Origin unknown. Some authorities derive this word from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut”).

Alternatively, the word may instead come from ramshackle/ramshackly (e.g., old ramshackly house) or perhaps it may be a back-formation from shackly.

Noun

shack (plural shacks)

1. A crude, roughly built hut or cabin.
2. Any poorly constructed or poorly furnished building.
3. (slang) The room from which a ham radio operator transmits.

Translations

Verb

shack (third-person singular simple present shacks, present participle shacking, simple past and past participle shacked)

1. To live (in or with); to shack up.

Translations

Etymology 2

Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats”).

Noun

shack (countable and uncountable, plural shacks)

1. (obsolete) Grain fallen to the ground and left after harvest.
2. (obsolete) Nuts which have fallen to the ground.
3. (obsolete) Freedom to pasturage in order to feed upon shack.
   • 1918, Christobel Mary Hoare Hood, The History of an East Anglian Soke [2]

     […] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.

   • 1996, J M Neeson, Commoners [3]

     The fields were enclosed by Act in 1791, and Tharp gave the cottagers about thirteen acres for their right of shack.

4. (Britain, US, dialect, obsolete) A shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Forby to this entry?)

   • 1868, Henry Ward Beecher, Norwood, or Village Life in New England

     All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble.

5. (fishing) Bait that can be picked up at sea.

Derived terms

• common of shack

Verb

shack (third-person singular simple present shacks, present participle shacking, simple past and past participle shacked)

1. (obsolete) To shed or fall, as corn or grain at harvest.
2. (obsolete) To feed in stubble, or upon waste.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grose to this entry?)

   • 1918, Christobel Mary Hoare Hood, The History of an East Anglian Soke [4]

     […] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.

3. (Britain, dialect) To wander as a vagabond or tramp.
4. (US, intransitive) To hibernate; to go into winter quarters.

References

Anagrams

• hacks, schak

English

Etymology

Possibly a contraction of spastic (as a term of abuse).

Pronunciation

Noun

spack (plural spacks)

1. (Britain slang, derogatory) A clumsy, foolish, or mentally deficient person.

   Synonyms: spacko, spaz

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:spack.

Derived terms

• spack attack

Related terms

• spacko
• spacka
• spacker
• spaz
• spastic

Anagrams

• packs

German

Etymology

From Middle Low German spak (“thin, dry, brittle”) from spake (“brushwood”). Or from rare Middle Low German spak (“tame, calm”) from an unknown source.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pak/, [?pak?]
• Rhymes: -ak

Adjective

spack (comparative spacker, superlative am spacksten)

1. (regional, Northern Germany, usually of people) thin, scrawny (having an unusually low amount of both muscle and fat)
2. (regional, Northern Germany, of wood) dry, brittle

Declension

Related terms

• Spacken

Further reading

• “spack” in Duden online