attack

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈtæk/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French attaquer,^[2][3][4] from Italian attaccare (“to attach, join”), as in attaccare battaglia “join battle”,^[2][5][6] an alteration, influenced by a (“to”), of an assumed Old Italian estaccare “to attach”, from stacca “stake”, of Germanic origin and akin to Old English staca (“stake”).^[7][8] It is thus a doublet of attach,^[2][6] which was used from the 15th to the 17th century in the sense now kept by attack.^[2][3] The noun is from the verb, perhaps influenced by attaque.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To fall upon with force or arms, to assail: 1600, in Philemon Holland's translation of Livy,^[9][3] or about 1600.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1562.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Hostile words followed military force: “to set upon with words or writing, to try to discredit” is from 1643^[9] or the 1640s.^[2] The general sense “to begin action on” is from the 1670s, first of diseases:^[2] a disease attacks from 1677,^[9] and a task is attacked, taken in hand vigorously, from 1812.^[9] The noun, an armed assault, is from 1667, in Milton's Paradise Lost,^[9][3] and a hostile verbal assault from 1751.^[9] A fit of illness is an attack from 1811,^[9][2] and Middle English had attach in the sense “a seizure (of fever)” in the late 14th century.^[2] In sport, the attacking side or play is from 1822,^[9] and in music the manner of beginning a note or passage is from 1871.^[9]

Timeline

• 1562 – first known use of the verb in Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• 1600 – to assail with arms.^[9][3]
• 1643 – to assail with words.^[9]
• 1667 – the noun, in Paradise Lost.^[9][3]
• 1677 – of disease.^[9]
• 1751 – a verbal attack.^[9]
• 1811 – a fit of illness.^[9][2]
• 1822 – the attacking side in a game.^[9]
• 1871 – music, the beginning of a note.^[9]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To set upon with violent force; to assault.
2. To criticize strongly or with hostility.
3. To start work on with energy and purpose.
4. Of a disease or a substance, to begin to affect or damage.

Noun

1. An act of attacking; an assault.
2. Strong hostile criticism.
3. An attacking move in a game, or the players who make it.
4. A sudden episode of an illness: a heart attack.
5. (music) The way a note or passage is begun.

Word family

• attacker
• attackable
• attackman
• unattackable
• unattacked
• reattack
• angle of attack
• attack dog

Related words

• attach
• stake
• stockade

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares attack with bombard, assail, storm, assault and beset.^[10] In Herefordshire dialect attack could mean simply “to undertake”, as in I mean to attack the journey.^[11]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)