Hacked

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /hækt/

Definitions

1. Cut roughly or chopped with heavy blows ; gained unauthorized access to a computer or digital system
2. Chopped or split in a crude or forceful manner ; broken into or controlled without permission in a computing context
3. Severed or cleaved with strong, uneven cuts ; intruded upon a network or device by bypassing security measures

Etymology: The verb "hack" goes back to Old English, where a form like "haccian" meant to chop or cut roughly. Its ancestors were Germanic: the Proto-Germanic root meant to chop, hoe or hew, and it has cousins across the continent, including German "hacken" and Dutch "hakken", both still meaning to chop. Behind that lies an Indo-European root sense of being sharp or pointed, which also gave rise to words for pegs and hooks. The surprise is how far the word has travelled from its blunt origins. In the 1950s, "hack" came to mean creative problem solving, and by the early 1960s, telephone enthusiasts were using it for tinkering with phone systems. The sense of breaking into someone else's computer, the one most people now know, grew out of that playful usage, with malicious hacking becoming associated with the "black hat" label. "Hacked" is simply the past tense and past participle of "hack", so it carries the same chopping sense at its core.

Synonyms: cut, chopped, slashed