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
- A bag, sack: a container of flexible material, open at the top: un sac de toile, un sac en plastique.[9][10]
- Its contents: un sac de blé.[11]
- A handbag (sac à main); a rucksack (sac à dos); a sleeping bag (sac de couchage).[11][2]
- (anatomy, biology) A sac or pouch: sac amniotique.[1]
- (dated slang) Ten francs; earlier, a thousand francs.[1][2]
- 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
- (literary) The plundering and devastation of a captured town: le sac de Rome.[9][11]
- Mettre à sac: to ransack, to loot.[9][11]
Related words
- saccule
- sacoche
- saccager
- saccage
- Latin saccus
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 20b
- ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
- ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
- ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)