• IPA: /smæk/

The noun is from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ, from Proto-West Germanic *smakku, from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz, from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg-.

The verb is from Middle English smaken.

Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak, Saterland Frisian Smoak, Western Frisian smaak, Dutch smaak, German Schmack, Geschmack ("taste"), Danish smag, Swedish - and Norwegian smak, Norwegian smekke . Akin to Old English smæċċan. More at smatch.

smack

1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.

   rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon

   • 1873 January 22, Robert Browning, “Part IV”, in Red Cotton Night-Cap Country: Or Turf and Towers, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC ↗, page 245 ↗:

     I did not call him fool, and vex my friend, / But quietly allowed experiment, / Encouraged him to dust his drink, and now / Grate lignum vitæ now bruise so-called grains / Of Paradise, and now, for perfume, pour / Distilment rare, the rose of Jericho, / Holy-thorn, passion-flower, and what know I? / Till beverage obtained the fancied smack.

   • 1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “(please specify the poem number)”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC ↗:

     But take it: if the smack is sour / The better for the embittered hour; […]

2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC ↗:

     He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

3. (slang, uncountable) Heroin.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:heroin

4. (Northern England) A form of fried potato; a scallop.

• German: Hauch
• Italian: sentore
• Russian: вкус

• German: Ahnung
• Russian: при́вкус

smack (smacks, present participle smacking; simple past and past participle smacked)

1. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
   • 1827, Thomas Carlyle (translator), Johann Karl August Musäus, "Melechsala" (1782-86); in German Romance I. 175

     He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness.

2. (intransitive) To have a particular taste; used with of.
   • 1820-25, Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia

     He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

3. (intransitive) To indicate or suggest something; used with of.

   Her reckless behavior smacks of pride.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene ii]:

     All sects, all ages, smack of this vice.

From Middle Low German smack (Low German Schmacke) or Dutch smak, perhaps ultimately related to smakken, imitative of the sails' noise.

smack (plural smacks)

1. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack
   • 2009, Simon Schama, The American Future: A History:

     But without Union reinforcement, as many men as could be packed into a mere fishing smack could take the fort, Meigs wrote to Washington.

2. A group of jellyfish.

• German: Schmack
• Italian: semalo
• Spanish: sumaca

From Middle English *smakken, from Middle Dutch smacken (modern Dutch smakken), from odt *smakkon, from Proto-West Germanic *smak(k)ōn.

smack (plural smacks)

1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
2. The sound of a loud kiss.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     he took the bride about the neck. And kissed her lips with such a clamorous smack.

3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.

• Russian: шлепо́к
• Spanish: sopapo, soplamocos

smack (smacks, present participle smacking; simple past and past participle smacked)

1. To slap or hit someone.
2. To make a smacking sound.
   • 1832, Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming:

     A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel.

3. (especially outside of North America) To strike a child (usually on the buttocks) as a form of discipline. (normal U.S. and Canadian term spank)
4. To wetly separate the lips, making a noise, after tasting something or in expectation of a treat.
   • 1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle”, in St. James Magazine:

     But when, obedient to the mode / Of panegyric, courtly ode / The bard bestrides, his annual hack, / In vain I taste, and sip and smack, / I find no flavour of the Sack.

5. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.

• Italian: schiaffeggiare
• Russian: шлёпать
• Spanish: lapear, sopapear, abofetear, bofetear, cachetear

• Russian: чмо́кать

• Russian: чмокнуть

smack (not comparable)

1. As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.

   Right smack in the middle.

Possibly an Americanized form of German Schmack.

1. Surname.