tact

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tækt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ækt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French tact, following a semantic shift from earlier tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), borrowed from Latin tāctus (“touched”). The borrowing was likely influenced by earlier English tact (“sense of touch; feeling”), which was a parallel borrowing directly from the Latin.

Noun

tact (uncountable)

1. Sensitive mental touch; special skill or faculty; keen perception or discernment; ready power of appreciating and doing what is required by circumstances; the ability to say the right thing. [from early 19th c.]

   Synonyms: sensitivity, consideration, diplomacy, tactfulness

   By the use of tact, she was able to calm her jealous husband.

   I used tact when I told my fat uncle that his extra weight made him look better.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     He had formed plans not inferior in grandeur and boldness to those of Richelieu, and had carried them into effect with a tact and wariness worthy of Mazarin.

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     A tact which surpassed the tact of her sex as much as the tact of her sex surpassed the tact of ours.

2. Propriety; manners (etiquette).

Derived terms

• tactful
• tactfulness
• tactless

 

Translations

sensitive mental touch

• Arabic: حِسّ (ḥiss), لَبَاقَة (labāqa), لَمْس (lams)
• Bulgarian: тактичност (bg) f (taktičnost)
• Catalan: tacte (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 機智／机智 (zh) (jīzhì), 輕重感／轻重感 (qīngzhònggǎn), 分寸感 (fēncùngǎn), 禮貌／礼貌 (zh) (lǐmào)

• Czech: takt (cs) m
• Dutch: tact (nl) m
• Esperanto: takto (eo)
• French: tact (fr) m
• Galician: tacto (gl) m, tento m
• German: Takt (de) m, Taktgefühl (de) n
• Irish: stuaim f
• Italian: tatto (it)
• Japanese: 如才なさ (じょさいなさ, josainasa), 愛想 (ja) (あいそ, aiso), 礼儀 (ja) (れいぎ, reigi), タクト (Tact)
• Korean: 재치 (ko) (jaechi)
• Maori: atawhai matawhāiti
• Persian: درایت (fa) (derâyat)
• Polish: takt (pl) m
• Portuguese: tato (pt) m
• Russian: такт (ru) m (takt), такти́чность (ru) f (taktíčnostʹ)
• Spanish: tacto (es) m, tiento (es), mano izquierda
• Turkish: takt (tr)
• Welsh: pwyll (cy) m, tact m
• Yiddish: שׂכל m (seykhl)

Etymology 2

Directly borrowed from Latin tāctus.

Noun

tact (countable and uncountable, plural tacts)

1. The sense of touch; feeling. [from 1650s]
   • 1829, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Sir Thomas More: or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

     Did you suppose that I could not make myself sensible to tact as well as sight?

   • 1881, Joseph LeConte, Sight: An Exposition on the Principles of Monocular and Binocular Vision:

     Now, sight is a very refined tact.

2. (music) The stroke in beating time.
3. (psychology) A verbal operant which is controlled by a nonverbal stimulus (such as an object, event, or property of an object) and is maintained by nonspecific social reinforcement (praise).
   • 2013, Jacob L. Gewirtz, William M. Kurtines, Jacob L. Lamb, Intersections With Attachment:

     Skinner (1957) saw such tacts as responses that are reinforced socially.

Translations

sense of touch

• French: tact (fr) m

Verb

tact (third-person singular simple present tacts, present participle tacting, simple past and past participle tacted)

1. (psychology) To use a tact (a kind of verbal operant).

Etymology 3

Noun

tact (plural tacts)

1. (slang) Clipping of tactic.
   • 2006, “Block Party”, in Corner Gas:

     Wanda "Hey, can you show us?"
     Karen "No"
     Brent "We promise not to make fun of you."
     Karen "No"
     Lacey "Okay, we promise TO make fun of you."
     Karen "I'm getting a drink"
     Lacey "I was trying a different tact."
     Wanda "Bad tack."

Further reading

• tact on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “tact”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tact”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

See also

• tact time

Anagrams

• Catt

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French tact.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɑkt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tact
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

Noun

tact m (uncountable)

1. tact, discernment

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tactus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /takt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

tact m (plural tacts)

1. tact
   • 1832, La Femme de trente ans, Paris: Honoré de Balzac:

     Elle possède alors le tact nécessaire pour attaquer chez un homme toutes les cordes sensibles, et pour étudier les sons qu’elle en tire.

     So she possesses the tact necessary to attack a man in all his sensitive spots, and to study the sounds that she draws from him.

   • 1940, Out-el-Kouloub, “Nazira”, in Trois contes de l'Amour et de la Mort, éditions Corrêa:

     Avec beaucoup de tact, ce vieillard, qui savait n’être ni autoritaire ni égoïste, s’efforçait de gagner l’affection de Nazira et de se faire pardonner d’être vieux.

     With great tact, this old man, who knew how to be neither authoritarian nor selfish, strove to win Nazira's affection and be forgiven for being old.

2. sense of touch
   • 1877, Henri Gervais, Les poissons ; Les poissons de mer:

     Les pectorales, larges et allongées, présentent trois rayons libres auxquels se rendent des nerfs volumineux; ce sont des organes de tact.

     The pectoral fins, large and elongated, present three spokes reached by large volumes of nerves; these are the touch organs.

Related terms

• tactile

Descendants

• → Dutch: tact
• → English: tact (“sensitive mental touch”)
• → Greek: τακτ (takt)
• → Polish: takt
• → Turkish: takt

Further reading

• “tact”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Takt or French tact.

Noun

tact n (plural tacturi)

1. tact

Declension

Declension of tact

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) tact	tactul	(niște) tacturi	tacturile
genitive/dative	(unui) tact	tactului	(unor) tacturi	tacturilor
vocative	tactule		tacturilor