saccus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈsak.kʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈsak.kus]^[1]

Forms

saccus m (genitive saccī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “coarse haircloth; sack, bag”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Plautus (c. 250–184 BC).^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant a large bag or sack, as Cicero's sacks requisitioned with corn and hides by Verres and Phaedrus' mule with sacks swollen with barley.^[2][4] It also meant a moneybag, as in Horace, and a strainer for wine or snow-water, as in Pliny and Martial.^[5]

In Christian Latin it was a garment of sackcloth, a hair shirt.^[1][6] In medieval Latin it also meant the public treasury and a woolsack.^[6] Isidore derived it from sagum, “cloak”.^[7] Romance kept it, as French sac, and French mettre à sac, “to put in a bag”, gave English sack “to plunder” in the 1540s.^[1][8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.^[3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of sacks for grain.^[4][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a moneybag.^[5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a strainer.^[5][3]
• 1540s – English sack “plunder” is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sack, bag.^[2][1]
2. A moneybag, purse.^[5][1]
3. A strainer, filter.^[5][3]
4. (Christian Latin) Sackcloth, a hair shirt.^[1][6]
5. (Medieval Latin) The public treasury; a woolsack.^[6]

Word family

• saccārius
• saccellus
• sacceus
• saccīnus
• saccipērium
• saccō
• sacculus
• bisaccium
• saccibuccis

Related words

• saccātum
• saccellātiō
• sacculārius
• English sack

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b c d Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com