Wiktionary

tack

See also: Tack and täck

English edit

 
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Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

 
Tacks (small nails with flat heads)
 
Tacks (thumbtacks)

From Middle English tak, takke (“hook; staple; nail”), from Old Northern French taque (“nail, pin, peg”), from Frankish *takkō, from Proto-Germanic *takkô (“tip; point; protrusion; prong; tine; jag; spike; twig”), of unknown origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dHgʰ-n-, from the root *déHgʰ- (“to pinch; to tear, rip, fray”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Takke (“bough; branch; twig”), West Frisian takke (“branch”), tûk (“branch, smart, sharp”), Dutch tak (“twig; branch; limb”), German Zacke (“jag; prong; spike; tooth; peak”).

Alternative forms edit

Noun edit

tack (countable and uncountable, plural tacks)

  2. A small nail with a flat head.
    Hyponym: thumbtack
    • 2012 July 15, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot put Bradley Wiggins off track”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      A tough test for even the strongest climber, it was new to the Tour de France this year, but its debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons after one of those spectators scattered carpet tacks on the road and induced around 30 punctures among the group of riders including Bradley Wiggins, the Tour's overall leader, and his chief rivals.
  4. A thumbtack.
    Coordinate term: pushpin
  6. (sewing) A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.
  8. (nautical) The lower corner on the leading edge of a sail relative to the direction of the wind.
  10. (nautical) A course or heading that enables a sailing vessel to head upwind.
  12. (figurative) A direction or course of action, especially a new one; a method or approach to solving a problem.
  14. (nautical) The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind changes from one side to the other.
  16. (nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward; a board.
  18. (nautical) A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is close-hauled; also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding sail to the boom.
  20. Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals.
    Hyponyms: saddle, stirrup, bridle, halter
  22. (manufacturing, construction, chemistry) The stickiness of a compound, related to its cohesive and adhesive properties.
    The laminate adhesive has very aggressive tack and is hard to move once in place.
    • 1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415:
      Letterpress and offset gloss varnishes normally have viscosities varying from 50 to 250 poises; they must stain the paper as little as possible, have insufficient tack to cause plucking, […]
  24. Food generally; fare, especially of the bread kind.
    hardtack
    soft tack
  26. That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix.
  28. (obsolete) Confidence; reliance.
    • 1651-1666, Joseph Caryl, Exposition of Job with Practical Observations:
      He should find […] that there was tack in it, that it was solid silver, or silver that had strength in it.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
thumbtack — see thumbtack
nautical: distance between these maneuvers — see board
hardtack — see hardtack

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English takken (“to attach; nail”), from the noun (see above).

Verb edit

tack (third-person singular simple present tacks, present participle tacking, simple past and past participle tacked)

  1. To nail with a tack (small nail with a flat head).
  3. To sew/stitch with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).
  4. (nautical) To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.
    Synonym: change tack
    Antonym: wear
  5. (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
    Synonym: beat
    Antonym: run
  7. To add something as an extra item.
    to tack (something) onto (something)
    • 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes‎[3], page 312:
      In short, they tend to present Indian English as nothing more than "standard" English with a select collection of lexical peculiarities tacked on, as it were, many of which would be regarded as "errors" by prescriptivist language scholars.
  8. Synonym of tack up (“to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with a tack”).
  9. (slang, obsolete) To join in wedlock.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also edit

Etymology 3 edit

From an old or dialectal form of French tache. See techy. Doublet of tache.

Noun edit

tack (plural tacks)

  1. A stain; a tache.
  2. (obsolete) A peculiar flavour or taint.
    a musty tack

References edit

  • (en, flavour or taint): 1893, Joseph Wright, The English dialect dictionary (page 4)
  • (en, flavour or taint): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 4 edit

Back-formation from tacky.

Noun edit

tack (uncountable)

  1. (colloquial) That which is tacky; something cheap and gaudy.
    • 2014, David Leffman, The Rough Guide to China:
      For souvenirs – mostly outright tack and ethnicky textiles – try your bargaining skills at the shops and stalls on Binjiang Luand Zhengyang Jie, or the nightly street market spreading for about a block either side of Shanhu Bridge along Zhongshan Lu.

Etymology 5 edit

From Middle English tak, take (“fee, tax (on livestock)”), from Old Norse tak, taka (“a taking, seizure; revenue”), from Old Norse taka (“to take”). Cognate with Scots tack.

Noun edit

tack (plural tacks)

  2. (law, Scotland and Northern England) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.
    • 1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History:
      In the Breadalbane papers, for example, there is a "tack" which was given by Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour, in the year 1530.

See also edit

References edit

Anagrams edit

Scots edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English tak, take, from Old Norse tak, taka (“a taking, revenue”).

Noun edit

tack (plural tacks)

  1. Lease, tenancy
  2. The period of such a contract
  3. A leasehold; especially, the tenure of a land or a farm.

Swedish edit

Etymology edit

From Old Swedish þak, from Runic Swedish þakk, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz. Cognates include English thank, German Dank, Danish tak and Norwegian Nynorsk takk/Norwegian Bokmål takk.

Pronunciation edit

Interjection edit

tack

  1. thanks, thank you
    Synonym: (emphatic) tack snälla (“thank you so much”)
    – Här är grejen du frågade efter. – Tack!
    – Here's the thing you asked for. – Thank you!
    Tack för hjälpen!
    Thanks for the help! / Thanks for helping me out!
    Tack för att du hämtade ungarna!
    Thanks for picking up the kids!
    Tack för skjutsen!
    Thanks for the ride!
    Tack för att vi fick komma
    Thank you for having us ("Thank you for that we were-allowed-to come")
  2. please (to add politeness)
    Synonym: (in polite requests) är du snäll
    Vi skulle vilja beställa, tack
    We would like to order, please
    Det blir hundra kronor, tack
    That will be one hundred kronor, please
    Stå inte där, tack / är du snäll. Du är i vägen.
    Don't stand there, please. You are in the way. (possibly somewhat rude still, like in English – "Ursäkta, skulle du kunna flytta dig lite så att vi kan komma förbi" (Excuse me, could you ["would you be able to," literally] move over a bit so we can get past) is politer)

Usage notes edit

  • Like in English, another way to add politeness is to turn requests into possibilities (the more remote, the politer). See skola for examples.
  • A pleading please (like, "Please, don't do it!") is snälla.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Noun edit

tack n

  1. a thank you, a thanks (phrase or gesture that expresses gratitude)
    Du ska ha ett stort tack för allt du gjort för oss!
    Thank you very much for all you have done for us! ("You shall have a big thank you for everything you have done for us!")
    Inte ens ett tack fick vi ("Vi fick inte ens ett tack" also works. Putting "inte ens ett tack" (not even a thank you) first emphasizes it.)
    We didn't even get a thank you

Declension edit

Declension of tack 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative tack tacket tack tacken
Genitive tacks tackets tacks tackens

Derived terms edit

See also edit

References edit

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