different between shack vs swack

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swæk/

Etymology 1

From Scots swack, from Middle English swac (“weak”), from Old English *swæc (found in derivative swæceh?ow (“weakmindedness, nonsense”)), from Proto-West Germanic *swak (“weak”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian swäk, West Frisian swak, Dutch zwak, German Low German swack, German schwach.

Adjective

swack (comparative swacker, superlative swackest)

1. (Scotland) Lithe; nimble.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 37:

     it came the turn of a brave young childe with a red head and the swackest legs you ever saw, […] and as soon as he began the drill you saw he'd carry off the prize.

Synonyms

• gracile, svelte, willowy; see also Thesaurus:slender and Thesaurus:flexible

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Noun

swack (plural swacks)

1. (slang) A large number or amount of something.

   She gave me a swack of books.

Etymology 3

Considered dialect by Wright, but now widespread. Scottish National Dictionary proposes an origin in Old Scots (Middle English) swak ("to throw violently"). Compare Scots swak, swack (“to throw with violent force, dash", also "a hard blow or whack”). Compare also Middle Dutch swacken (“to shake, wave”).

Noun

swack (plural swacks)

1. Synonym of smack
   1. A sharp blow.
   2. The sound of a sharp blow.
   3. A wet sound such as a loud kiss.
   4. A striking stimulus.
2. An attack, a swipe.
3. A single attempt or instance of taking action; a crack; a go.
4. clout; influence.
5. A gulp or hearty swallow.

Verb

swack (third-person singular simple present swacks, present participle swacking, simple past and past participle swacked)

1. To smack.
   1. To slap or hit.
   2. To make a swack (sound).
2. To consume with hearty enjoyment.
3. To labour; to exert an effort.

Adverb

swack (comparative more swack, superlative most swack)

1. With a swack, to the point of touching.

Etymology 4

Noun

swack (plural swacks)

1. A bum or petty thief.

References

• “swack” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
• Wright, Joseph (1904) The English Dialect Dictionary?^[1], volume 5, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 859

Anagrams

• Wacks, cawks, wacks

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

swak +? -k

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swat?sk/

Noun

swack m

1. Diminutive of swak (brother-in-law)

Declension