thack

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

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• Rhymes: -æk

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.

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]

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

thack (plural thacks)

1. A stroke; a thwack.

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”).[1] See also thatch and deck.

thack (countable and uncountable, plural thacks)

1. the weatherproof outer layer of a roof, often thatch specifically
   • 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.

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

1. To cover a roof with thack.