Getting the Sack Is About Carrying Your Tools Home
A sack is a large bag. To sack someone means to dismiss them, and the image is literal.
A sack is a large bag of coarse material, and *to sack* is to dismiss from employment. The dismissal image is practical: a tradesman kept his tools in a sack at the workshop, and being handed it meant gathering them and going. The phrase *get the sack* is recorded in French before English, as *donner le sac*. A third *sack*, meaning to plunder a captured city, is from Italian *sacco*, again a bag — loot was carried off in one.
- A large bag. *A sack of flour.*
- To dismiss. *He got the sack.*
- To plunder. *The sack of Rome.*
- A dry wine (archaic). *Sack.*
- Latin — *saccus*, a bag. *The root.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | sack | A sack. |
| Verb | sack | Sacking. |
| Compound | sackcloth | Sackcloth. |
| Related | satchel | A satchel. |
| Latin | saccus | A bag. |
- A sack of potatoes.Bag.
- He was sacked on Friday.Dismissal.
- The sack of Rome.Plunder.
One of the oldest travelling words
- Hebrew *saq* — a bag, among the earliest forms
- Greek *sakkos* and Latin *saccus* followed
- It spread into nearly every European language
- Sackcloth in the Bible means coarse mourning fabric
- Satchel is a diminutive of the same Latin word
Old English *sacc*, from Latin *saccus*, from Greek *sakkos*, from a Semitic source.
Why does getting the sack mean being dismissed?
Because a tradesman kept his tools in a sack at work, and being handed it meant collecting them and leaving.
Is sacking a city the same word?
Yes, through Italian sacco. Plunder was carried away in bags.