sackcloth

Etymology

It is formed from Middle English sak (“bag, sackcloth”) + cloth (“cloth”).^[2][3][4][5] Sack is from Old English sacc (“large cloth bag; sackcloth”), a word that goes back through Latin saccus to Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “bag of goat hair; sieve; large burlap cloak”), which Etymonline takes from a Semitic source.^[5] Cloth is from Old English claþ (“cloth, garment”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coarse cloth for sacks: 1297, in a Latin account roll of Ramsey Abbey that lists twelve ells of sacclot for four sacks.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also date the word to the 13th century,^[5][3] while the OED's first record is from the Durham Abbey accounts of 1373–4.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a coarse material, which the OED defines as now made of flax or hemp and used for bags and for wrapping bales.^[4] Before 1400 it also appears as the stuff of mourning and penitential clothes,^[4] a use that the simple noun sack already had from about 1200.^[5] According to Etymonline, biblical sackcloth was made of goats' or camels' hair, the coarsest kind used for clothing.^[5] Set against "purple" or "gold", it could stand for the roughest possible dress.^[4] The phrase in sackcloth and ashes refers to the mourner or penitent who wore it with ashes sprinkled on the head.^[6] From 1571 to 1896 the OED also records sackcloth as a fabric for ladies' dresses.^[4]

Timeline

• 1297 – coarse cloth for sacks, as sacclot.^[2] The OED's first record is from 1373–4, as sekklath.^[4][2]
• before 1400 – the material of mourning and penitential clothes.^[4]
• 1571 – a material for ladies' dresses (last recorded 1896).^[4]
• 1594 – plural, garments of sackcloth (only this record).^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A coarse cloth, now usually of flax or hemp, used for sacks and for wrapping; sacking.^[4][3][6]
2. Such cloth, or a garment made of it, worn as a sign of mourning or penance.^[3][4][6]
3. in sackcloth and ashes: showing grief or repentance publicly, like one who wears sackcloth and has ashes on the head.^[6]

Word family

• sackclothed

Related words

• sack
• cloth
• sacking

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press