Incoming!

Here's an interesting word we all use in one way or another.

flak / flæk / noun

1. Antiaircraft fire, rounds from antiaircraft artillery.
2. Heavy abusive criticism.

Dr. Goodword points to the definition I know as a journalist, using a different spelling:

Be careful to avoid inserting a C in this word. Some folks think that since it rhymes with black, it should look like black, right? Not really. As the Word History will show, the rhyme of this word is purely coincidental and, even though US dictionaries condone the folk-etymological spelling, this word should be spelled without a C. A flack is a booking agent or publicity man (since 1946) and a bulletproof vest is a flak-jacket, with only one C.

Flak, Dr. Goodword tells us, started out referring to fire aimed at bombers by antiaircraft artillery on the ground. Today, however, this word generally refers to harsh criticism: "Henry took so much flak for suggesting his company produce helicopter ejection seats that he decided to duck staff meetings in the future."

History: Flak first appeared in the 1938 edition of Jane's Fighting Ships. It was borrowed directly from German, where it was an abbreviation for Fliegerabwehrkanone "pilot defense cannon". The German word Flieger "pilot, flyer" comes from the verb fliegen, which shares an origin with English fly. The original root was plau-, which emerged in Lithuanian as plaukti and Russian plavat', both meaning "swim, float, sail". The same original root became plunein "to wash, bathe" in Greek and ended up in English as flow as well as fly.