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SACK

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 973 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SACK , a large bag made of a coarse material such as is described under SACKING below. The word occurs with very little variation in all See also:

European See also:languages, cf. Gr. D•G,KKOS, See also:Lat. saccus, Fr. See also:sac, Span. See also:saco, Du. zak, &c. All are borrowed from the See also:Hebrew sag, properly a coarse stuff made of See also:hair, hence a bag made of this material. Most etymologists attribute the widespread occurrence of the word to the See also:story of See also:Joseph and his brethren in Gen. xliv. The Hebrew word itself is' probably See also:Egyptian, as is evidenced by the Coptic sok, Apart from its See also:ordinary meaning, the word is used as a unit of dry measure, which has varied considerably at different times and places and for 'different goods; it is the customary 'See also:British measure for coals, potatoes, apples and some other goods, and is See also:equivalent to three bushels. From the end of the 17th to the See also:middle of the 18th See also:century the sack or " sacque " was a fashionable type of See also:gown for See also:women, having a See also:long flowing loose back—See also:hanging in pleats from the See also:neck. It is still used as a tailor's or dressmaker's See also:term for a loose straight-back coat. The Fr. sac meant also pillage, See also:plunder, whence saccager, to plunder a See also:town, especially after it had been taken by See also:assault or after a See also:siege. There is no doubt that it is an See also:extension of " sack," a bag, with a reference to the most obvious receptacle for See also:booty. The See also:slang expression " to give the sack," " to get the sack," of a See also:person who has been turned out of a situation or been given See also:notice to leave is an old See also:French proverbial expression: See also:Cotgrave gives On luy a See also:donne sa sac et ses quilles,;" he hath his See also:passport given him, he is turned out to grazing, said of a servant whom his See also:master hath put away." The New See also:English See also:Dictionary finds the expression also in 15th-century Dutch.

It remains to distinguish the name, See also:

familiar from English literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, of a. See also:Spanish See also:wine, which was of a strong, rough, dry See also:kind (in Fr. vin sec, whence the name), and therefore usually sweetened and mixed with spice and mulled or " burnt." It became a See also:common name for all the stronger See also:white wines of the See also:South.

End of Article: SACK

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