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sack

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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

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.

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)