Getting Flak

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Melissa calling from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Hi, Melissa. Welcome to the program.

Howdy.

So it was the day after Thanksgiving, and I was at a leftover Thanksgiving party,

And we were sitting around a fire, and the chatter got kind of quiet,

And so I brought up, I said that maybe we should all go around and see what we were thankful for.

And so the conversation went on to talk about whether each of us actually does that at our family gatherings,

And so I was at my family’s table on Thanksgiving Day, and I said,

Well, maybe we should all go around and do that thing where we talk about how grateful we are

Before we stuff our faces with food.

And then my dad proceeded to say, maybe you should stop talking so much and say thanks by eating your food.

No!

Yeah.

Dad!

So then, yeah, I know it.

So then we were back by the fire, and I was telling my friends a story.

And then I said, I can’t believe my family gave me so much slack for trying to express things.

And then everyone around the fire was like, wait, what?

Slack?

What?

And either they had never heard the word or never heard it in that context.

And so, you know, of course, I was like, of course, it’s a word.

So I pulled out my phone, pulled out my dictionary app, and I started to look it up and I couldn’t find anything that was really relevant.

Like I found F-L-A-C-K, which means a press agent.

And then F-L-A-K, which was like some kind of military term or something.

-huh.

So my question is, how did it become a word that means to give grief?

And why had my friends never heard it in that context?

Are they all your age?

How old are you guys?

We’re all between like 24 and 25.

Okay.

Well, you were getting warm.

You were in the right neighborhood with the idea of flak being an anti-aircraft gun, F-L-A-K.

It’s a word that comes to us from German, German flak, which is this mercifully condensed word.

It’s actually Fliegerabwehrkanone, which is a pilot warding off cannon is the way it translates.

So like a flak was an anti-aircraft gun.

And that eventually became transferred to the stuff flying from it and then metaphorically to stuff flying at you.

So the debris from the weapon being used that might also kill bystanders, the chunks of metal, that actually took the name of flak then from the weapon.

Right.

Okay. And so if you’re catching flack at a post-Thanksgiving gathering, you’re kind of catching pieces of metal from other people there.

Yeah.

All right.

Does that make sense?

Okay. Yeah, yeah, it does. That’s pretty interesting.

So I’m surprised that you were catching flack for talking about being thankful.

Yeah. Well, everyone was just really hungry, I guess.

Well, go back to your friends, educate them all, and now you all know, all right?

Okay.

And they should thank you for that.

Give us a call another time, all right?

Thanks. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure thing.

Take care now. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673 is the number to call to talk about language,

Or you can find us on Facebook and Twitter.