I'm confused to comprehend the meaning of this sentence. "Now you've completely lost the tack on being a whacko/wacko in what you are writing". Please correct and explain?
2 Answers
The sentence means, in my view, that the person stopped being mad in writing.
Explanation:
"Whacko/wacko" means "a person who is regarded as eccentric or mad", according to WordNet Search.
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
In the sentence, "you" have been mad in what the person writes, but it is time to stop being so. He/she is not a whacko any longer.
What the sentence is trying to say, therefore, is that the person being spoken to has lost his/her ability to be crazy and unconventional in their writing.
Explanation:
I think perhaps the confusion might stem from the word "tack".
In this case, tack is a word from sailing and refers to how a sailboat will sail upwind - by continually changing direction to work your way against a headwind. "Tack" has expanded in meaning and also refers to the direction (or changing of directions) of your life/job/career/etc in order to better move against critics and other "headwinds".
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tack
Let's also look at "whacko/wacko". Both words ("whacko" and "wacko") both refer to being insane, crazy, unconventional, off-the-wall.
If we then look at the sentence:
Now you've completely lost the tack on being a whacko/wacko in what you are writing.
What the sentence is trying to say, therefore, is that the person being spoken to has lost his/her ability to be crazy and unconventional in their writing.
