thack

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: thăk, IPA^(key): /θæk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English thakken (“to stroke”), from Old English þaccian (“to touch gently, stroke, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *þakwōn, from Proto-Germanic *þakwōną (“to touch lightly”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).

Cognate with Old Dutch þakolōn (“to stroke”), Old Norse þykkr (“a thwack, thump, blow”), Icelandic þjökka, þjaka (“to thwack, thump, beat”), Norwegian tjåka (“to strike, beat”), Latin tangō (“touch”). More at thwack, tangent.

Verb

thack (third-person singular simple present thacks, present participle thacking, simple past and past participle thacked)

1. (transitive, obsolete except British, dialectal) To strike or thump (someone or something); to thwack.
   • [1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Freres Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC, folio xliiii, recto, column 2:

     This carter thacked his horſe on yͤ croupe / And they begon to drawe and to ſtoupe

     This carter thwacked is horse on the croup / And they began to draw and to stoop]

Etymology 2

From Middle English thacce, from thakken (“to stroke”): see etymology 1.

Noun

thack (plural thacks)

1. A stroke; a thwack.

Interjection

thack

1. The sound of a thack.
   • 1860, Albany Fonblanque, Jun.,^{[Albany de Grenier de Fonblanque]} Hector Mainwaring; or, A lease for lives, Ward and Lock, page 205,

     Thack ! thack ! thack ! the heavy hunting whip came down upon the head and shoulders of Charles Dudley.

   • 2012, Campbell Bolwell, From the Mountaintop, Xlibris, page 33,

     Whishhh—THACK! The strap is a blur as it comes to meet my outstretched hand.

Etymology 3

From Middle English thak, thakk, thakke, from Old English þæc, from Proto-West Germanic *þak, from Proto-Germanic *þaką, from Proto-Indo-European *teg-.

Cognate with Dutch dak, Low German Dack, Danish tag (“roof”), German Dach (“roof”), Old Norse þak (“thatch, roof”). Akin to Latin toga (“garment”) and Ancient Greek στέγος (stégos, “roof”). See also thatch and deck.

Noun

thack (countable and uncountable, plural thacks)

1. The weatherproof outer layer of a roof, often specifically thatch.
   • 1952, L.F. Salzman, Building in England, page 223:

     This outer layer was generically known as 'thack', but, owing to the fact that the vast majority of buildings in early times were covered with a thacking of straw or some similar material, 'thatch' gradually acquired its modern restricted significance of straw, or reed, heling.

Verb

thack (third-person singular simple present thacks, present participle thacking, simple past and past participle thacked)

1. To cover a roof with thack.
   • 2023 [1871], John Stuart, Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen, Outlook Verlagsgesellschaft (Anatiposi Verlag), Books on Demand, page 365,

     28 June 1716

     The said day, it was represented that the thacking and covering of Houses houses in the towne with straw and hedder wes very dangerous, and rendered them obnoxious to fyre, and to the endangering of the saids houses and the neighbouring adjacent houses, and that a fatall evidence thereof, by haveing some houses thacked and covered as said is, had falne out in the Gallowgate lately; […] .

Derived terms

• thacked (adjective)
• thacker