[Ads-l] Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)

Baker, John 000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Tue Jan 16 02:40:03 UTC 2024 

Thanks, Fred.  Since the implication is that the people actually using "flack" did not know about Gene Flack, that would seem to count against its likelihood.  Merriam-Webster mentions a rumor that holds that it derives from a similar-sounding Yiddish word for someone who talks about someone else's affairs.  That sounds more plausible to me.


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 4:19 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)

I see a column in the Cincinnati Enquirer, 22 Jan. 1939, by some guy named Walter Winchell, who I think was somewhat knowledgeable about the entertainment world and the media. Winchell wrote: "Variety, which is trying to coin 'Flack' as a synonym for press agent (without much luck) might like to know it was born in the Chicago offices of Gene Flack, a film publicist."

Fred Shapiro


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU<mailto:fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>>
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 3:59 PM
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Subject: Etymology of Flack (Corrected Posting)

The case for Gene Flack is based on a 1939 article in the magazine Better English, which stated that the term "flack" "is said to" have originated in Variety derived from Gene Flack's name (the Better English article also mentions a possible Yiddish derivation). My discoveries of 1933 uses in Variety make the 1939 article more distant from the origination and thus less authoritative.

I do not think that the 1933 discoveries make the Gene Flack theory unviable. If the 1939 article was based on information from Variety itself, that would carry weight.

Fred Shapiro


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>> on behalf of Baker, John <000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:000014a9c79c3f97-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>>
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Subject: Re: Etymology of Flack

Fred, do you still see the derivation from the name of Gene Flack as viable?


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>> On Behalf Of Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2024 2:53 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Etymology of Flack

External Email - Think Before You Click


Subsequent to my American Speech article on "flack," in 2014 I posted the following antedatings:


flack (OED, n.2., 1946)

1933 _Variety_ 20 Sept. Peripatetic Flack Press agent at one of the downtown radio stations.

1933 _Variety_ 7 Oct. Flack Writes Lyndsley Parsons, Monogram press agent.

1933 _Variety_ 24 Oct. Flack Quits Blake McVeigh resigned from the Paramount publicity staff, effective Saturday.


Fred Shapiro



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Subject: Etymology of Flack

What is the current thinking on the etymology of "flack," a public relations representative? I am aware that Fred Shapiro had an article in American Speech arguing that it derived from the name of Gene Flack, a publicist in the 1930s, although I have not seen the article. However, Merriam-Webster wrote in 2008 that they remained skeptical about that and other claims. I gather that the timing of its usage makes a derivation from "flak," anti-aircraft fire, unlikely.


John Baker






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