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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL7 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Hack”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
HackEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
* As a German and Dutch surname, from the old Germanic name Hacco, shortened from names derived from *hakkju (“enclosure, hedge”). * Also as a German and Dutch surname, occupational surname for a butcher or woodcutter, see Hacker. * As a north/Low German surname, variant of Haack. * Also as a north/Low German surname, variant of Heck. * Also as a north/Low German surname for someone who lived by a marsh, from hach, hack (“boggy water”). * As an English surname, from the Middle English personal name Acke with a prosthetic H-, itself of North Germanic origin and a pet form of Old Norse Áskell, see Haskell. * Also as an English surname, from Middle Dutch Hakke, denasalized from Hanke, a West Flemish and Picard form of John. * Also as an English surname, from the Middle English adjective hak (“ruthless, unsparing”). * As a Jewish surname, from Yiddish האַק (hak, “axe”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng-der. Proto-Germanic *hakkōną Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn Old English *haccian Middle English hakken English hack From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”). Related to hatch. The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng-der. Proto-Germanic *hakkōną Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn Old English *haccian Middle English hakken English hack From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”). Related to hatch. The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Variations of hatch, heck.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Abbreviation of hackney (“an ordinary horse”), probably from place name Hackney.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
Unclear. Perhaps imitative; compare hock, hawk. Alternatively, perhaps from hack (“chop; do something difficult”) via the idea of doing something (like breathing) or with difficulty.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗hackEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
From hackysack.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Chambers (1908)
1908- HackEnglish · e-38538-3576
Hack, hak, v.t. to cut: to chop or mangle: to notch: to kick (another) at football.—n. a cut made by hacking: a kick on the shin.—n. Hack′ing, the operation of picking a worn grindstone, &c., with a hack-hammer.—adj. sho
Read the full source record → - HackEnglish · e-38538-3577
Hack, hak, n. a horse kept for hire, esp. a poor one: any person overworked on hire: a literary drudge.—adj. hired, mercenary: used up.—v.t. to offer for hire: to use roughly.—n. Hack′-work, literary drudgery for which a
Read the full source record → - HackEnglish · e-38538-3578
Hack, hak, n. a grated frame, as a rack for feeding cattle, a place for drying bricks, &c. [Hatch.]
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Boy may reach ox—but only through a disputed trail.
One proposal runs from a fettered person through a shackle, restraint collar, ox hide, and ox; another major reference says the origin is unknown.
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