Sacks

sack ¹  (sk)

n.

1.

a. A large bag of strong coarse material for holding objects in bulk.

b. A similar container of paper or plastic.

c. The amount that such a container can hold.

2. also sacque A short loose-fitting garment for women and children.

3. Slang Dismissal from employment: finally got the sack after a year of ineptitude.

4. Informal A bed, mattress, or sleeping bag.

5. Baseball A base.

6. Football A successful attempt at sacking the quarterback.

tr.v. sacked, sack·ing, sacks

1. To place into a sack.

2. Slang To discharge from employment. See Synonyms at dismiss.

3. Football To tackle (a quarterback attempting to pass the ball) behind the line of scrimmage.

Phrasal Verb:

sack out Slang

To sleep.

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[Middle English, from Old English sacc, from Latin saccus, from Greek sakkos, of Semitic origin; see qq in Semitic roots.]

Word History: The ordinary word sack carries within it a few thousand years of commercial history. Sack, which probably goes back to Middle Eastern antiquity, has a long history because it and its ancestors denoted an object used in trade between various peoples. Thus the Greeks got their word sakkos, "a bag made out of coarse cloth or hair," from the Phoenicians with whom they traded. We do not know the Phoenician word, but we know words that are akin to it, such as Hebrew aq and Akkadian saqqu. The Greeks then passed the sack, as it were, to the Latin-speaking Romans, who transmitted their word saccus, "a large bag or sack," to the Germanic tribes with whom they traded, who gave it the form *sakkiz (other peoples have also taken this word from Greek or Latin, including speakers of Welsh, Russian, Polish, and Albanian). The speakers of Old English, a Germanic language, used two forms of the word, sæc, from *sakkiz, and sacc, directly from Latin; the second Old English form is the ancestor of our sack.

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sack ²  (sk)

tr.v. sacked, sack·ing, sacks

To rob of goods or valuables, especially after capture.

n.

1. The looting or pillaging of a captured city or town.

2. Plunder; loot.

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[Probably from French (mettre à) sac, (to put in) a sack, from Old French sac, sack, from Latin saccus, sack, bag; see sack¹.]

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sack ³  (sk)

n.

Any of various light, dry, strong wines from Spain and the Canary Islands, imported to England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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[From French (vin) sec, dry (wine), from Old French, from Latin siccus, dry.]

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Sacks [sæks]

n

(Biographies / Sacks, Jonathan (Henry) (1948 M, British, RELIGION: rabbi) Jonathan (Henry). born 1948, British rabbi; Commonwealth chief rabbi from 1991