sack
I. sack1 (săk)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. [Middle English, from Old English sacc, from Latin saccus, from Greek sakkos, of Semitic origin. See śqq 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 śaq 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. II. sack2 (săk)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. [Probably from French (mettre à) sac, (to put in) a sack, from Old French sac, sack, from Latin saccus, sack, bag. See sack1.] III. sack3 (săk)n. Any of various light, dry, strong wines from Spain and the Canary Islands, imported to England in the 16th and 17th centuries. [From French (vin) sec, dry (wine), from Old French, from Latin siccus, dry.]
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