lack

Pronunciation

• IPA: /læk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lak, lakke,^[2][3] of uncertain origin and not found in Old English.^[3][4] It may continue an unrecorded Old English *lac, or be borrowed from Middle Dutch lak (“deficiency, fault”),^[3][2][5] which may in any case have reinforced the Middle English word.^[2][6] Either way it goes back to Proto-Germanic *lakaz,^[2][3] the source also of Middle Low German lak “lack, fault”, Old Frisian lek “disadvantage, damage” and Old Norse lakr “lacking, defective”.^[2][3][5] Watkins takes it to Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to dribble, trickle”), the source of leak,^[3][5] while Barnhart compares Latin laxus “loose”, the source of lax.^[2] The verb is probably from the noun,^[2] perhaps from Middle Dutch laken “to be wanting; to blame”.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun, “a defect, fault”: about 1200 in the OED,^[7] before 1300 in Barnhart;^[2] the verb, “to be wanting”, is from the late 12th century^[3] or before 1225.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In its earliest uses the noun meant a moral failing or fault, and in Scots a disgrace,^[7][4] and the verb meant also “to blame, disparage”, a sense that survived in Scots and English dialect.^[4][8] The sense “deficiency, want” is from about 1300^[3] or about 1398 in the OED,^[7] and the transitive verb, “to be without”, from the early 13th century.^[3] Middle English also had lackless, “without blame or fault”.^[3] No lack of, “plenty of”, is from about 1305, while for lack of dates from about 1386.^[7] Lacklustre is from Shakespeare's As You Like It (1600).^[2]

Timeline

• late 12th century – verb, to be wanting.^[3]
• c. 1200 – noun, a fault.^[7]
• early 13th century – verb, to be without.^[3]
• c. 1300 – noun, a shortage.^[3]
• c. 1386 – for lack of.^[7]
• 1600 – lacklustre.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The state of being without or not having enough of something; shortage.
2. Something that is needed or wanted.

Verb

1. To be without, or have too little of.
2. To be missing or deficient: what is lacking is money.

Word family

• alack
• lacklustre

Related words

• lackluster
• lacking
• leak
• lax

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary noted that to lack is to be without some one thing, generally desirable but not necessarily important.^[3] The exclamation good lack! is a shortening of alack.^[9][7]

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 k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press