tack

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English tak, take (“fee, tax (on livestock)”), from Old Norse tak, taka (“a taking, seizure; revenue”), from Old Norse taka (“to take”). Cognate with Scots tack.

1. A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.

   “In the Breadalbane papers, for example, there is a "tack" which was given by Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour, in the year 1530.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English takken (“to attach; nail”), from the noun (see above).

1. To nail (something) with a tack (small nail with a flat head).

   “The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall.”

2. To sew/stitch with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).
3. To weld with initial small welds to temporarily fasten in preparation for full welding.
4. To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.
5. To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
6. To add something as an extra item.

   “to tack (something) onto (something)”

   “In short, they tend to present Indian English as nothing more than "standard" English with a select collection of lexical peculiarities tacked on, as it were, many of which would be regarded as "errors" by prescriptivist language scholars.”

7. Synonym of tack up (“to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with a tack”).
8. To join in wedlock.