smack

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to strike sharply with the open hand, or a sharp slapping blow

   She gave the door a smack to close it firmly.

Simplified etymology

Several unrelated words are spelled smack. The word in “it smacks of fish” comes from Old English smaec, “flavour or smell,” while the verbs for noisily parting the lips and striking came from Dutch smacken in the mid-16th century, with the striking sense developing by the early 19th century. The 17th-century name for a sailing vessel is also Dutch, and the 20th-century slang term for heroin probably comes from Yiddish schmeck, “a sniff, a smell,” from the same Germanic root as the Old English word.

Of imitative origin, akin to Middle Low German smacken and Dutch smakken ('to strike, smack'), echoing the sharp sound of a slap.

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External links

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