plack

• IPA^(key): /plæk/, [pʰl̥æk]
• (UK) IPA^(key): /plak/, [pʰl̥ak]
• Rhymes: -æk, -ak
• Homophone: plaque

From Middle Dutch placke (“name of a coin”). Cognate with Old High German pleh, bleh (“thin leaf of metal, plate”). Compare plaque.

plack (plural placks)

1. (obsolete) A coin used in the Netherlands in the 15th and 16th centuries. [15th–17th c.]
2. (Scotland, Northern England, historical) A coin issued by James III of Scotland; also a 15th-16th century Scottish coin worth four Scots pennies. [from 15th c.]
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 49:

     ‘Yes, I prayed you to grant my life, which is in your power. The saving of it would not have cost you a plack, yet you refused to do it.’

plack

1. Misspelling of plaque.

Probably from West Flemish placke (“small coin”), related to French plaque, Medieval Latin placa. See English plaque.

• IPA^(key): /plak/

plack (plural placks)

1. (historical) plack

   And than, besides his valiant acts, / At bridals he won many placks. (Robert Sempill, ‘The Piper of Kilbarchan’)