sac

Forms

sac m (plural saci)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin saccus (“sack, bag”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian sac, Megleno-Romanian sac and Istro-Romanian sǫc.^[2][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian sacco, Occitan sac, Catalan sac, French sac, Spanish saco and Portuguese saco.^[2][4]

The Latin word was taken from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “coarse hair cloth; sack”), which is itself a loan from a Semitic language;^[8][9][1] Beekes compares Biblical Hebrew שַׂק (śaq).^[8][9][1]

Ciorănescu names two later loans of the same word: sacos, the vestment of Orthodox prelates, from Byzantine Greek σάκκος (sákkos), and sacou “jacket”, from the Italian word.^[2] For the fishing-net sense he compares the Bulgarian, Slovene and Ukrainian word for a fishing net;^[2][10] Scriban took that sense from Russian.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1492, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[11] In Romanian texts the plural saci and the form sacul are in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalms 34:15, 29:14).^[12] MDA2's first record is the Palia of 1581, where Joseph orders the brothers' sacks to be filled with wheat: „Și Iosif porunci cum sacii lor să-i împlă cu grâu”.^[5][13]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bag, the word has meant its contents, the coarse cloth sacks are made of, a travelling bag, and a sack-shaped fishing net.^[6][2] The old biblical sense “sackcloth” survives in the Bucharest Bible, where Mordecai puts on sack and ashes.^[11] Anatomy and botany use it for sac-shaped organs: sac aerian “air sac”, sac embrionar “embryo sac”.^[6] The phrase sac fără fund “bottomless sack” is a greedy or wasteful person, or someone with an endless store of stories.^[6][11]

Its derivatives are diminutives and augmentatives such as săculeț, săcușor and săcoi;^[2] Candrea derived săcui from a Latin *sacculeus.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1492 – a record in the Slavonic–Romanian documents, the first.^[11]
• early 16th century – saci and sacul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• 1570 – sac in Coresi's psalter (Psalms 34:15, 68:14).^[14]
• 1581 – sacii in the Palia.^[5][13]
• 1688 – sac “sackcloth” in the Bucharest Bible (Esther 4:1).^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sack, a bag of cloth, strong paper or plastic for storing or carrying goods; its contents: un sac de cartofi;^[6][5] sac de dormit “sleeping bag”.^[6][5]
2. (figurative) A large amount, a heap.^[6]
3. Coarse cloth of tow or hemp from which sacks are made; sackcloth.^[6]
4. A large travelling bag of cloth or leather.^[6]
5. A fishing net shaped like a sack, with a deep bottom and a mouth held open by a wooden hoop.^[6]
6. (anatomy, botany) A sac-shaped organ or cavity: sac aerian, sac polinic, sac embrionar.^[6]

Word family

• săculeț
• săcușor
• săcoi

Related words

• Latin saccus

Usage notes

A da de fundul sacului “to reach the bottom of the sack” is to become poor, and a prinde pe cineva cu mâța în sac “to catch someone with the cat in the bag” is to catch them red-handed.^[6] The plural is saci;^[5] MDA2 records rare neuter plurals sace and sacuri and a regional feminine sacă.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. sac
3. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 134
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7489
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 742
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 970
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 346
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1145
11. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sac
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 29:14
13. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sac
14. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 68:14