Obs. or dial. [Origin uncertain; in sense 1, it appears to be a doublet of TACHE sb.1; cf. = Picard taque = Fr. tache spot; but cf. also F. tac ‘a kind of rot among sheepe; also, a Plague-spot’ (Cotgr.), which Hatz.-Darm. think possibly borrowed from L. tactus found in the sense of infection, contagious disease. Sense 2 is possibly transf. from 1, but may be of different origin.]
† 1. A spot, a stain; a blemish; = TACHE sb.1 1, 2.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2178, in Macro Plays, 142. In sory synne had he no tak & ȝyt for synne he bled blody ble.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 467. The witnesse of the other hath often a wrest and tacke of her corruption.
2. A smack, taste, or flavor (of something); esp. an alien, peculiar, or ill flavor; = TACHE sb.1 2 c. Also fig.
1602. R. T., Five Godlie Serm., 146. Superstitious ceremonies, without anie smacke or tacke of anie sound Christian doctrine.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Piquer, Le poisson pique, begins to haue a tacke, or ill tast.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xix. 130. Or cheese which our fat soil to every quarter sends, Whose tack the hungry clown and plow-man so commends.
1868. Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., s.v., If two articles of food are cooked together, and the stronger flavoured one communicates a taste to the other, it is said to ‘have a tak o’ t’ither.’
1884. Cheshire Gloss., s.v., Ale which has been put into a musty cask is said to have a tack, or a tack of the cask.
