sac

sac¹ bag

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sak/^[1]

Forms

sac m (plural sacs)^[1]

Etymology

The bag is inherited from Latin saccus (“sack, bag; strainer”), borrowed from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “coarse cloth; sack”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Rey traces the Greek word, a commercial term for packing cloth, to a Semitic language, probably Phoenician (compare Biblical Hebrew שַׂק (śaq)); Bloch and Wartburg to a pre-Hellenic language of Cilicia.^[3][4] In late Latin the word also meant a coarse haircloth garment.^[3][7]

Cognate with Italian sacco and Spanish saco; the word also passed into Germanic: Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌺𐌿𐍃 (sakkus), German Sack, English sack.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first meant a coarse cloth, in the Life of Saint Alexis (about 1050), and in the first half of the 12th century the poor garment of penance (Cambridge Psalter); the container open at the top is in Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–74).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Many phrases grew from the container: avoir la tête dans un sac “to be in complete ignorance” (Sévigné, 1675), prendre la main dans le sac “to catch red-handed” (Académie, 1798), the sack race course en sac (1842) and mettre dans le même sac “to lump together” (Zola, 1881).^[2] Vider son sac, to say what is on one's mind, is found in 1596.^[8] A sac was also the bag holding the papers of a lawsuit (1478).^[2][3]

At the end of the 14th century it was used for the belly, whence sac à vin “drunkard” (1485).^[3] In slang it has meant money (avoir le sac “to be rich”, 1844, un sac, a thousand francs, 1846, and later ten francs), and sac à puces a dog (1881).^[2][1] Donner son sac à quelqu'un “to dismiss” (1808) gave sacquer.^[3] Kinds of bag multiplied: sac de nuit (1599), the infantryman's pack (1824), sac de couchage (1904), sac à main (1907) and sac à dos (1957).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Coarse cloth, Life of Saint Alexis.^[2]
• First half of the 12th century – The garment of penance.^[2]
• 1160–74 – The container, Wace.^[2]
• 1478 – The bag of a lawsuit's papers.^[2]
• 1485 – Sac à vin “drunkard”.^[3]
• 1675 – Avoir la tête dans un sac, Madame de Sévigné.^[2]
• 1798 – Prendre la main dans le sac.^[2]
• 1904 – Sac de couchage.^[2]
• 1907 – Sac à main, Colette.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bag, sack: a container of flexible material, open at the top: un sac de toile, un sac en plastique.^[9][10]
2. Its contents: un sac de blé.^[11]
3. A handbag (sac à main); a rucksack (sac à dos); a sleeping bag (sac de couchage).^[11][2]
4. (anatomy, biology) A sac or pouch: sac amniotique.^[1]
5. (dated slang) Ten francs; earlier, a thousand francs.^[1][2]
6. In phrases: vider son sac (to get it off one's chest), mettre dans le même sac (to lump together), sac de nœuds (a tangle).^[1][8]

Word family

• sachet
• sachée
• sacquer
• ensacher
• bissac

sac² plunder

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sak/^[1]

Forms

sac m (plural sacs)^[1]

Etymology

The plundering is borrowed from Italian sacco, used especially in “mettere a sacco” “to put to the sack” (14th century).^[3][4][5][9] “Sacco” is short for saccomanno (“plunderer”), from Middle High German sakman (“pillager, brigand”), literally “sack man”, a compound of “sak” “sack” and “man” “man”, because plunderers carried their loot off in sacks.^[3][4][5] Rey notes that the first element may go back to Latin saccus, but that “saccomanno” has also been derived from a Vulgar Latin verb of Germanic origin.^[3] Wiktionary instead derives the word from Old Norse saka.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg find it about 1400 in the memoirs of Marshal Boucicaut, a governor of Genoa: mettre la ville à sac; the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date it 1420, and Rey 1466–67, in metre en saq “to massacre”.^[4][5][9][3]

Semantic evolution

Mettre à sac, to plunder a town thoroughly, is recorded from 1527; in the 19th century Balzac weakened it to “to turn upside down”.^[3] Middle French also took saquement (1422), saquemand (1596), “pillager” and “pillage”, directly from the German word.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – Mettre la ville à sac, Boucicaut.^[4]
• 1422 – Sacquement “pillager”.^[3]
• 1527 – Mettre à sac.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The plundering and devastation of a captured town: le sac de Rome.^[9][11]
2. Mettre à sac: to ransack, to loot.^[9][11]

Related words

• saccule
• sacoche
• saccager
• saccage
• Latin saccus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 20b
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)