σάκκος

Forms

σᾰ́κκος (sákkos) m (genitive σᾰ́κκου); second declension^[1] Also σάκος, said to be Attic.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a Semitic loanword, probably borrowed from Phoenician through trade.^[2][4][5] Compare Biblical Hebrew שַׂק (śaq, “sack, garment of mourning”), which mostly denotes the cloth, and Akkadian saqqu (“sack; mourning garment”), with Aramaic forms of the same meaning.^[5][4][2] Rosół counts it among the accepted Semitic loanwords.^[5]

The word travelled widely around the Mediterranean, and its first source is disputed: Bertoldi thought it a Mediterranean wanderword, while Černý and Forbes proposed an origin in Egyptian sꜣq (“to gather together”), which might have reached Greek through a Semitic language.^[4][2][1] Latin saccus was borrowed from Greek.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author with the word is Hipponax, for whom it is a strainer for wine.^[3][5] In Herodotus it is a sack.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

From the cloth made of goats' hair came several objects: sacks, in Herodotus and Aristophanes, and the bag used to strain wine.^[3][2][6] Aristophanes jokes about a long, coarse beard as a “sack”.^[6][3] Derivatives include the diminutive σακκίον (sakkíon) and the verb σακκέω (sakkéō, “to strain”).^[2]

In the Septuagint it renders the Hebrew word for sackcloth, the coarse garment worn in mourning, and the New Testament uses it the same way.^[3][6][5] Ostraca use it as a measure.^[3] Medieval Greek kept the word as σάκος, for a bag and for the sackcloth garment, and it survives as Modern Greek σάκος (sákos).^[7][8]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it of a strainer for wine.^[3][5][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of sacks.^[3][6][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of sacks and, in jest, of a coarse beard.^[3][6][9]
• Septuagint – The Septuagint uses it for the sackcloth of mourning.^[3][5]
• New Testament – The Gospels use it of sackcloth.^[6][3]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek σάκος (sákos) means a sack or bag.^[8][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Coarse cloth of goats' hair, sackcloth, worn in mourning.^[3][6]
2. A Sack, bag; also a measure.^[3][6]
3. A sieve or strainer, especially for wine.^[3][6]
4. (figurative) A long coarse beard.^[6][3]

Word family

• σακκέω (sakkéō)
• σάκκινος (sákkinos)
• σακκοπήρα (sakkopḗra)
• σακκούδιον (sakkoúdion)
• σακκώνυμος (sakkṓnumos)

Related words

• Latin saccus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge