Tack
Middle English (in the general sense ‘something that fastens one thing to another’): probably related to Old French tache ‘clasp, large nail’.
wiktionary
From Middle English tak, takke(“hook; staple; nail”), from Old Northern French taque(“nail, pin, peg”), probably from a Germanic source, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *takkô(“tip; point; protrusion; prong; tine; jag; spike; twig”), from Proto-Indo-European *dHgʰn-, *déHgʰ-(“to pinch; tear; rip; fray”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Takke(“bough; branch; twig”), West Frisian takke(“branch”), tûk(“branch, smart, sharp”), Dutch tak(“twig; branch; limb”), German Zacke(“jag; prong; spike; tooth; peak”).
From Middle English takken(“to attach; nail”), from the noun (see above).
From an old or dialectal form of French tache. See techy.
tack ( uncountable)
etymonline
tack (n.1)
"clasp, hook, fastener," also "a nail" of some kind, c. 1400, from Old North French taque "nail, pin, peg" (Old French tache, 12c., "nail, spike, tack; pin brooch"), probably from a Germanic source (compare Middle Dutch tacke "twig, spike," Frisian tak "a tine, prong, twig, branch," Low German takk "tine, pointed thing," German Zacken "sharp point, tooth, prong"), from Proto-Germanic *tag-. Meaning "small, sharp nail with a flat head" is attested from mid-15c. The meaning "rope to hold the corner of a sail in place" is first recorded late 15c.
tack (n.2)
"horse's harness, etc.," 1924, shortening of tackle (n.) in sense of "equipment." Tack in a non-equestrian sense as a shortening of tackle is recorded in dialect from 1777.
tack (n.3)
"food" in general, but in dialect especially "bad food," and especially among sailors "food of a bread kind," 1833, perhaps a shortening and special use of tackle (n.) in the sense of "gear." But compare tack "taste" (c. 1600), perhaps a variant of tact.
tack (v.1)
late 14c., "to attach" with a nail, etc., from tack (n.1). Meaning "to attach as a supplement" (with suggestion of hasty or arbitrary proceeding) is from 1680s. Related: Tacked; tacking.
tack (v.2)
"turn a ship's course toward the wind at an angle," 1550s, from tack (n.1) in the ship-rigging sense (the ropes were used to move the vessel temporarily to one side or another of its general line of course, to take advantage of a side-wind); hence tack (n.) "course of conduct or mode of action suited to some purpose" (1670s), from figurative use of the verb (1630s). Related: Tacked; tacking.
