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Origin and history of lack

lack(n.)

c. 1300, "absence, want; shortage, deficiency," not found in Old English, of uncertain origin. Perhaps it is from an unrecorded Old English *lac, or else borrowed from Middle Dutch lak "deficiency, fault;" in either case probably from Proto-Germanic *lek- (source also of Old Frisian lek "disadvantage, damage," Old Norse lakr "lacking" (in quality), "deficient" (in weight)), from PIE *leg- (2) "to dribble, trickle" (see leak (v.)). Middle English also had lackless "without blame or fault."

also from c. 1300

lack(v.)

"be wanting or deficient" (intransitive), late 12c., perhaps from Middle Dutch laken "to be wanting," from lak (n.) "deficiency, fault," or an unrecorded native cognate word (see lack (n.)). Transitive sense "be in want of" is from early 13c. Related: Lacked; lacking.

To lack is primarily and generally to be without, that which is lacked being generally some one thing, and a thing which is desirable, although generally not necessary or very important. [Century Dictionary]

also from late 12c.

Entries linking to lack

leak(v.)

"to let water in or out" [Johnson], late 14c., from Middle Dutch leken "to drip, to leak," or from Old Norse leka, both of them related to Old English leccan "to moisten, water, irrigate" (which did not survive into Middle English), all from Proto-Germanic *lek- "deficiency" (source also of Old High German lecchen "to become dry," German lechzen "to be parched with thirst"), from PIE root *leg- (2) "to dribble, trickle." The figurative meaning "come to be known in spite of efforts at concealment" dates from at least 1832; transitive sense first recorded 1859. Related: Leaked; leaking.

alack(interj.)

expression of sorrow or dismay, mid-15c. contraction of ah, lack, which according to Skeat is from lack (n.) in its secondary Middle English sense of "loss, failure, fault, reproach, shame." According to OED, originally an expression of dissatisfaction, later of regret or unpleasant surprise. Sometimes extended as alackaday ("alack the day").

lackluster(adj.)

also lack-luster, c. 1600, "dull, wanting brightness" (originally of eyes), first attested in "As You Like It," from lack (v.) + luster (n.1). Such combinations with lack- were frequent once: Shakespeare alone also has lack-love, lack-beard, lack-brain, lack-linen. Outside Shakespeare there was lackland (1590s), of a landless man; lack-Latin (1530s), of an ignorant priest; lack-learning (1590s), lack-wit (Dryden), lack-thought (1829), lack-life (1889), and the comprehensive lack-all (1850).