| 词组 | flak, flack |
| 释义 | flak, flack Flak was originally antiaircraft fire, and more recently hostile or at least unfriendly criticism. Flack was originally a press agent. Copperud 1980 is worried that the difference between the two is threatened. As far as spelling is concerned, the difference has already eroded to a certain extent: flack is established as a variant spelling of flak, and flak is used occasionally for flack. However, neither variant is as common as the original spelling, so spelling will clue you to meaning most of the time. In other cases, you will have to pay attention to the context. The words are never confused, even if their spellings are sometimes interchanged. You will not mistake the meanings in these examples: • A flak man for Senator Dymally —Paul Wieck, New Republic, 21 Jan. 1968 • ... they would not hire a flak to keep their names in the press —E. V. Cunningham, Cosmopolitan, February 1973 Flack is much more usual: • ... the same nervous agents, press flacks, and hangers-on —Larry L. King, Harper's, July 1968 • ... the rhetoric of a White House flack —Gaddis Smith, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 3 June 1973 Flak is often run into, caught, or taken: • ... the administration has run into flak —Andy Pasztor, Wall Street Jour., 18 Feb. 1983 • The Budget Director also caught flak for statements that ... —Rich Jaroslovsky, Wall Street Jour., 12 Nov. 1981 • Now we're taking the flak from all the rest —David A. Stockman, quoted in Atlantic, December 1981 This sometimes comes spelled flack (the original sense was also sometimes spelled this way): • This modest proposal ran into flack —Charles MacDonald, Library Jour., August 1967 • There was a lot of flack when you took your stand —R. Allen Leider, Celebrity, October 1976 We recommend that you go with the original and still dominant spellings for each word. |
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