Past tense of 'shack'; to live in a crude or temporary shelter, or to stay with someone romantically (informal).
From 'shack', a noun meaning crude dwelling, possibly from Mexican Spanish 'jacal' (thatched hut). The verb form emerged in 20th-century American slang.
The slang phrase 'shacked up' probably comes from Spanish 'jacal' (a traditional thatched hut), showing how American English borrowed casual housing terms from Spanish through cultural contact!
'Shacked up' carries 1950s-60s moralistic gendering around unmarried cohabitation, particularly policing women's sexuality and autonomy.
Use 'lived together' or 'cohabitated' to avoid judgment embedded in the phrasing.
["cohabitated","lived together","shared a place"]
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