smack

Etymology 1

The noun is from Middle English smac, smak, smacke, from Old English smæc, smæċċ (“taste, smatch”), from Proto-Germanic *smakkuz (“a taste”), from Proto-Indo-European *smegʰ-, *smeg- (“to taste”). The verb is from Middle English smaken. Cognate with English dialectal smatch, Scots smak (“scent, smell, taste, flavour”), Saterland Frisian Smoak (“taste”), West Frisian smaak (“taste”), Dutch smaak (“taste”), German Schmack, Geschmack (“taste”), Danish smag (“taste”), Swedish and Norwegian smak (“taste”), Norwegian smekke . Akin to Old English smæċċan (“to taste, smack”). More at smatch.

noun

1. A distinct flavor, especially if slight.
   rice pudding with a smack of cinnamon
2. A slight trace of something; a smattering.
3. (slang, uncountable) Heroin.
   Claude overdosed on smack in a Chicago flophouse three years later. 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 191
4. (Northern England) A form of fried potato; a scallop.

verb

1. (transitive) To get the flavor of.
   He soon smacked the taste of physic hidden in this sweetness. 1827, Thomas Carlyle (translator), Johann August Musæus, "Melechsala" (1782-86); in German Romance I. 175
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.

Etymology 2

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

noun

1. A small sailing vessel, commonly rigged as a sloop, used chiefly in the coasting and fishing trade and often called a fishing smack
   But without Union reinforcement, as many men as could be packed into a mere fishing smack could take the fort, Meigs wrote to Washington. 2009, Simon Schama, The American Future: A History
2. A group of jellyfish.

Etymology 3

From Middle Dutch smacken, of imitative origin. Akin to German schmatzen (“eat noisily”), Dutch smakken (“to fling down”), Plautdietsch schmaksen (“to smack the lips”), regional German schmacken, Schmackes (“vigour”) (compare Swedish smak (“slap”), Middle Low German smacken, the first part of Saterland Frisian smakmuulje (“smack”)).

noun

1. A sharp blow; a slap. See also: spank.
2. The sound of a loud kiss.
   Then he told them of the princess, how she came to him, and how much she had to kiss him to get the whistle, when nobody saw or heard it over in the wood - "I must get on with these lies if the vat is to be full," said Ashiepattle, - so he told them about the queen, how stingy she was with the money and how liberal she was with kisses, that one could hear the smacks all over the wood. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 178
3. A quick, sharp noise, as of the lips when suddenly separated, or of a whip.

verb

1. To slap or hit someone.
2. To make a smacking sound.
   A horse neighed, and a whip smacked, there was a whistle, and the sound of a cart wheel. 1832, Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming
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.
   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. 1763, Robert Lloyd, “A Familiar Epistle”, in St. James Magazine
5. To kiss with a close compression of the lips, so as to make a sound when they separate.

adv

1. As if with a smack or slap; smartly; sharply.
   Right smack bang in the middle.