Etymologically
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lack

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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