tack

English has three main words spelled tack: the fastening, with the nautical senses, the food, and the horse gear.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• /tæk/^[4]

tack¹ small nail, fastening; sailing course

Etymology

The fastener is inherited from Middle English tak, also takke,^[5][6][7] probably borrowed from Old Northern French taque (“nail, pin, peg”),^[3][7][5][2] a variant of Old French tache (“nail, spike, tack”).^[3][1][8] The OED notes that forms in k or q are not recorded in Old French and calls the history obscure; it treats the word as a doublet of tache.^[9] The French word is probably of Germanic origin:^[3][7][2] compare Middle Dutch tacke (“twig, spike”), Middle Low German tacke (“pointed instrument”), West Frisian tak (“prong, twig”), Low German takk (“tine, pointed thing”) and German Zacke (“spike, prong”).^{[3][7][10][6]} Etymonline, after Watkins, gives Proto-Germanic *tag-, the source of tag.^[3] The MED also compares Anglo-Latin taccum (“iron tack on a cart axle”).^[5] The verb is takken, from the noun.^[5][10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A clasp or similar fastener: in 1283, of an iron tak for a leather sack, in an inquisition post mortem of Edward I.^[5] Barnhart has tacke "clasp, hook" from 1296–97,^[7] the OED from before 1400.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The general sense "fastener" narrowed to a small sharp nail with a broad head, first in the compound taknail in 1463.^[7][9] In the 15th century the word was applied to the ropes fastening a ship's sails:^[1] a rope holding the lower corner of a sail is recorded from 1481–90.^[7][9] Shifting these ropes to change direction gave the verb "to sail into the wind on a zigzag course", from 1557,^[7][3][1] which in turn gave the noun for a ship's course in relation to its sails, from the 1610s.^[3] The figurative "change one's course" followed in the 1630s for the verb and the 1670s for the noun, as a course of conduct.^[3] The verb "to attach" is recorded before 1387, in Trevisa,^[9][7] and loose temporary fastening from about 1440;^[9] from 1683 it also meant to append something, often arbitrarily,^[9][3] and in Parliament to add an unrelated clause to a money bill.^[11][10] The noun meant a long loose stitch from 1705, and stickiness from 1908.^[9] Ayto links tacky "sticky", from the 18th century, to the same notion of fastening.^[1] Johnson (1755) recorded to hold tack, to last, as still used in Scotland,^[12] and dialects used tack for substance or endurance.^[13][10] To tack a couple, to marry them, was slang from the late 17th to the early 19th century.^[11][9][14]

Timeline

• 1283 – tak, a clasp or fastener.^[5]
• before 1387 – verb, to attach, fasten.^[9][7]
• c. 1440 – verb, to fasten loosely or temporarily.^[9]
• 1463 – taknail, a small flat-headed nail.^[7][9]
• 1481–90 – a rope securing the corner of a sail.^[7][9]
• 1557 – verb, to change a ship's course by shifting the tacks.^[7]
• 1610s – a ship's course in relation to its sails.^[3]
• 1630s – verb, figuratively, to change one's course.^[3]
• 1683 – verb, to append, add on.^[9][3]
• 1705 – a loose temporary stitch.^[9]
• 1908 – stickiness, as of varnish.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A short sharp nail with a broad flat head: carpet tacks.^[15][10][11]
2. A long loose temporary stitch, used in dressmaking before the final sewing.^[15][10][11]
3. A temporary fastening.^[15][10]
4. Stickiness, as of fresh paint, varnish or ink.^[15][10][9]
5. (nautical) A rope that holds the lower forward corner of a sail, or that corner itself.^[15][10][9]
6. (nautical) The direction of a sailing ship in relation to the wind and her sails; a leg of a zigzag course sailed into the wind: on the starboard tack.^[15][10]
7. A course of action, especially one different from the previous one: When reason failed, she tried a new tack.^[15][10]
8. (British) A clause added to a parliamentary bill; a rider.^[10][11]

Verb

1. To fasten with tacks: He tacked the map to the wall.^[15][10][11]
2. To sew with long loose temporary stitches; to baste.^[15][11]
3. To add or attach something, often as an afterthought, usually with on: A service charge was tacked on to the bill.^[15][10][11]
4. (nautical) To change the course of a sailing ship by turning its bow through the wind; to sail on a zigzag course into the wind.^[15][10]
5. To change one's course or policy, or to follow a zigzag route.^[15][10]
6. (obsolete slang) To join in marriage.^[9][11]

Word family

• tacker
• tackless
• thumbtack
• tackboard
• tackify
• tintack
• untack
• tacky

tack² food

Etymology

The food is of unknown origin.^{[9][8][1][15][10]} The OED suggests it may come from tack¹, but compares tackle in the sense of food,^[9] and Etymonline takes it as perhaps a shortening and special use of tackle "gear".^[3] The Shorter Oxford and the OED compare the same sense of tackle.^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foodstuff: 1812, in the London Review, according to the OED.^[9] The Shorter Oxford dates the word to the late 16th century,^[11] and Etymonline to 1830, implied in hardtack.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In dialect the word especially meant bad food or food for animals, and among sailors bread-like food;^[3] hardtack, ship's biscuit, is recorded from 1830, and soft tack was soft wheaten bread.^[3][9] The word also came to mean any stuff, especially of little value.^[9][11] Green's Dictionary of Slang records it for food and ship's biscuit in 1855.^[14]

Timeline

• 1812 – foodstuff.^[9]
• 1830 – hardtack, ship's biscuit.^[3][9]
• 1855 – food, ship's biscuit, in a Sydney newspaper.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (informal) Food, especially when poor or unappetizing; hardtack.^[15][10][9]
2. Stuff, especially of little value.^[9][11]

Word family

• hardtack

tack³ horse's saddle and bridle

Etymology

The horse gear is a shortening of tackle in the sense "equipment".^{[9][3][11][15][1][2]} Tackle is probably from Middle Low German takel (“equipment, rigging”), a derivative of taken (“to seize”), to which English take is related.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tackle or gear in general, in dialect: 1777.^[9][3] The equestrian sense is recorded from 1924, in I. Maddison's Riding Astride for Girls.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

In the English dialects tack was the tools of a trade, such as a razor-grinder's machine or a smith's box of tools for shoeing horses.^[13] This general sense was obsolete by the end of the 19th century,^[9] and in the 20th century the word was restricted to a horse's saddle and bridle,^[9][11] with the compound tack room.^[11][15] The verb tack up, to saddle and bridle a horse, a shortening of the verb tackle, is recorded from 1946.^[9][11]

Timeline

• 1777 – tackle, gear, in dialect (obsolete by 1893).^[9][3]
• 1924 – a horse's saddle and bridle.^[9][3]
• 1946 – verb, tack up, to saddle and bridle a horse.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The saddle, bridle and other gear used in riding a horse, also as a modifier: the tack room.^[15][10][11]

Verb

1. To put a saddle and bridle on a horse, usually with up.^[11][9]

Related words

• tackle
• tache
• attach
• tag
• tacket

Usage notes

Several minor words share the spelling: the chiefly Scottish tack, a lease or leasehold, from the verb take and Old Norse tak;^[15][10][11] a dialect tack, an unpleasant flavour, of uncertain origin;^[10][11][13] an echoic tack for the sound of a sharp blow;^[9][11] a shortening of tachometer;^[9][11] and a back-formation from tacky "cheap and shabby", from 1986.^[9][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c 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)
14. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins