sack

English has three words spelled sack: a bag, an old borrowing of Latin; a dry wine, from French sec; and plunder, from French sac.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sæk/^[4]

sack¹ bag

Etymology

The bag is inherited from Middle English sak, inherited from Old English sacc (“large cloth bag”),^[1][5][3][2] borrowed from Latin saccus (“bag, sackcloth”), taken early into Germanic as Proto-Germanic *sakkiz,^[5][1] itself from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “bag of goat hair, sackcloth”), which is of Semitic origin.^[1][5][3][6] It was later reinforced by Old French sac and Old Norse sekkr.^[1] The ODWO asks what word these peoples used for so ordinary an object before they borrowed this one.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large bag of coarse cloth: about 1000.^[7][1]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline thinks the word's wide spread may be due to the story of Joseph in the Bible, where it appears in many translations.^[5] A sack as a bed is slang from 1829, and to hit the sack is later.^[7] The sense of dismissal from work is from 1825, at first in the phrase to give someone the sack, perhaps from a worker leaving with his tools in a bag,^[5] and French and Dutch had similar phrases.^[5][3] The verb, to dismiss, is attested by 1841.^[5] In American football, to tackle the quarterback behind the line is a later use.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a large bag.^[7][1]
• 1825 – the sack, dismissal.^[5]
• 1829 – a bed (slang).^[7]
• by 1841 – to sack, dismiss.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large bag of strong, coarse material for holding goods in bulk; a similar bag of paper or plastic.
2. The amount a sack holds.
3. the sack (informal): dismissal from a job.
4. (slang) A bed: to hit the sack.
5. A short, loose-fitting dress or jacket.

Verb

1. To put into a sack.
2. (informal) To dismiss from a job.
3. (American football) To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.

Word family

• sackcloth
• sackful
• rucksack

sack² dry wine

Etymology

The wine is borrowed from French vin sec (“dry wine”) in altered form,^[1][2] from Latin siccus (“dry”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

1531–32.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Sack was the name for a class of light, dry white wines from Spain and the Canary Islands, imported into England in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[8][3]

Timeline

• 1531–32 – sack, dry wine.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of various light, dry, strong wines from Spain and the Canary Islands, imported into England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

sack³ plunder

Etymology

The plunder is borrowed from Middle French sac, as in mettre à sac (“to put in a bag”), from or parallel to Italian sacco, as in a sacco, to the plunder,^[1][5][2] ultimately from Latin saccus (“bag”), perhaps from the filling of sacks with loot.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb, to plunder a captured city: before 1547; the noun: 1549.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline gives the noun from the 1540s, the plundering of a town after it has been stormed and taken.^[5]

Timeline

• before 1547 – to sack a city.^[1]
• 1549 – a sack, plundering.^[1][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The looting or plundering of a captured city or town.
2. Plunder; loot.

Verb

1. To plunder a captured place.

Related words

• sac
• sachet
• satchel
• haversack
• knapsack

Usage notes

In Irish slang to sack was to defeat an opponent, especially in a show of learning.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)