alçak

Meaning

1. Not having much distance from the ground, not high; low.
2. Not tall; short.
3. (derogatory,figuratively) Vile, immoral, dishonorable.

Hyphenated as

al‧çak

Pronounced as (IPA)

/aɫˈt͡ʃak/

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish آلچاق (alçaḳ, “low, short in stature, shallow, vile, despicable”), from Proto-Turkic *ăl (“lower side, below, being below, lower”). According to Talât Tekin Turkish aşağı (from aşak) and alçak are doublets, since ĺč turns into ş in Common Turkic. But longs vowels do not fit together in Turkmen alçak (alçak) and aşak (aşa:k).
An alternative etymology is suggested by Hüseyin Yıldız as alt (“bottom, base”) + -sa- (“derives verbs from nouns and adjectives”) + -k (“participle suffix”), where the /ts/ sound undergoes a phonetic change and turns into /t͡ʃ/, in which way derivations like alçak, alçalmak (“to become low, to stoop, to degenerate”) as well as آلچامق (alçamaḳ, “to treat as vile, to become low”)(which does not exist in Modern Turkish) are made.

Sentences

Alçak yerde tepecik kendisini dağ sanır.

On the low ground, the hilltop thinks it is a mountain.

Dört ayak merdivenle inildikten sonra alçak bir kapı vardı .

After descending the four-foot ladder, there was a low door.

Alçak bir tavan gibi , ıslak yerlere yaklaşan bulutlarla, ufkun manzarası münasebetsiz ve çirkindi.

Like a low ceiling, with clouds approaching wet places, the landscape of the horizon was inappropriate and ugly.