thwack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: thwăk
ipa: /θwæk/
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: thwacks
Etymology: The verb is probably:
* partly onomatopoeic, from the sound of something being beaten (compare whack); and
* partly derived from Late Middle English twakken, twake (“to hit (someone) with something; to pat; to stroke”), probably from Middle English thakken, thakke (“to dab; to pat; to stroke”) [and other forms] (whence thack (obsolete except Britain, dialectal)), from Old English þaccian (“to beat; to pat; to touch softly, stroke; to strike gently, clap, tap”), from Proto-West Germanic *þakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *þakwōną (“to pat; to tap; to touch”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to grasp with the hand; to touch”). Doublet of tangent.
The noun and interjection are derived from the verb.
Cognates
* Latin tangō (“touch”)
* Old Dutch þakolōn (“to stroke”)
* Old Norse þykkr (“a blow, thump, thwack”) (Icelandic þjaka, þjökka (“to beat, thump, thwack”); Norwegian tjåka (“to strike, beat”))
Senses: examples: text: Him Ralph encountred, and straight grew / A fierce Dispute betwixt them two: / Th'one arm'd with Metall, t'other with Wood; / This fit for bruise, and that for Blood. / With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, / Hard Crab-tree and old Iron rang; / While none that saw them could divine / To which side Conquest would encline: […]
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 49:
text: Noble Captain, Lend a reaſonable Thvvack, for the Love of God, vvith that Cane of yours, over theſe poor Shoulders.
ref: 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 205:
text: [H]e trudged rapidly up the steep avenue of the Alhambra, singing as he went, and now and then bestowing a hearty thwack with a cudgel on the flanks of his donkey, either by way of cadence to the song, or refreshment to the animal; for dry blows serve in lieu for provender in Spain, for all beasts of burden.
ref: 1832, [Washington Irving], “Legend of the Moor’s Legacy”, in The Alhambra: A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards. […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey & [Isaac] Lea, →OCLC, page 14:
text: But he was stopped on the way by a portly sperm whale, that begged a few moments' confidential business with him. That business consisted in fetching the Commodore's craft such a thwack, that with all his pumps going he made straight for the nearest port to heave down and repair.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Affidavit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 230:
synonyms: word: thack
english: obsolete except Britain, dialectal
translation: obsolete except Britain, dialectal
glosses: An act of hitting hard, especially with a flat implement or a stick; a whack; also, a powerful stroke involved in such hitting; a blow, a strike.
examples: text: I had scrambled out of the coach, and was instinctively settling my cravat, when somebody brushed roughly by me, and I heard a smart thwack upon the coachman’s ear. […] And then came a second thwack, aimed at the driver's other ear, but which missed it, and hit him on the nose, causing a terrible effusion of blood.
ref: 1837, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Mrs. Bullfrog”, in Mosses from an Old Manse. […], part I, New York, N.Y.: Wiley and Putnam, published 1846, →OCLC, page 122:
text: "It's a comfort they're most on'em females," he pursued, sounding a thwack on his knee as he settled himself agreeably in his seat.
ref: 1859, George Meredith, “Crisis in the Apple-disease”, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, page 137:
synonyms: thwomp
glosses: A dull or heavy slapping sound.