Etymologically
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saccus

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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
  • 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