Etymology

whack

W4H4A1C3K5

Today it means: The sound of a heavy strike. Full definition →

Malay hentam
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The story

  1. Malay · semantic loan fromhentam“to strike; to do something carelessly”
  2. English todaywhack

Uncertain. Originally Scottish; probably onomatopoeic, but compare Middle English thakken, from Old English þaccian (whence Modern thwack by conflation with whack). Sense 6 of the verb is likely a semantic loan from Malay hentam (“to strike; to do something carelessly”).

Words from the same roots

Malayhentam all →

anyhow whack

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.