What is this "flack" nonsese?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve been reading the Cecil archives for a few days now, and I’ve noticed a lot of people starting off their letters with “I get a lot of flack for this but…”

I might be wrong here but I was always under the impression that this is a reference to “flak” or flugabewehrkanone(sp?) the German anti-aircraft guns used in WWII. This is only my best guess at an explanation, is there another etymology here? If I’m right, why haven’t these people been properly reprimanded for their spelling error? Does “flack” even mean anything?

2

I think you’re right as to the origin. As to the spelling, this is from http://www.m-w.com :

As in flak jacket - what you were saying. It’s just an alternate bastardized American spelling.

3

It’s still wrong, of course.

Flak is received abuse.

A flack administers abuse–going on the assumption that people generally don’t like receiving the hyped releases put out by advance men or press agents. (Meaning #1 for flack.)
That’s OK, Gnobody, if you pay attention long enough, you’ll notice that a lot of arguments take a different tact around here (although most of the arguments involve very little tact, even when they are changing course to try a new tack).

In the spirit of fighting ignorance, we do need to bring this stuff up from time to time, but I wouldn’t get too upset about it: the language changes and misunderstandings are one engine that drives the change.

4

And my sentences would be clearer if all the punctutation I typed would show up on the screen when I hit Submit.

5

Yes, Webster lists flack as a variant spelling of flak.

But it also lists it as slang for a press agent. A flack was a PA before the Germans invented flak. There’s no good reason to confuse the two words by spelling them the same.

BTW, Webster also lists flack as a verb meaning “to be a PA”, which could lead to a sentence like “Before the Agriculture Secretary cancelled the alternative fiber proposal, his flacks flacked the flax flacks before any flak arose.”

6

WTF?

7

SK, Have you flack fax his flak attack.

8

Don’t forget Tom Wolfe’s classic essay Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers

9

Before UCLA football games, you can buy food in an area outside the Rose Bowl. However, you have to buy SCRIPT first.

As for “flack”, that spelling is also a surname (e.g. Roberta Flack) so that may be a reason it’s made its way into our spelling.

10

“Flak” is what you take when you misspell “nonsense” in your post.

11

Does this have any relevance to anything in this thread?

12

Perhaps the fact that the proper term is ‘Scrip’.

13

Lots of German words get converted to Anglicised spellings. Same with French, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese words. And Greek and Latin and …
It’s the nature of spelling.
It’s not an English thing either. Germans and French are quite happy to respell English words. Why wouldn’t they?