Sacks

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A bag or pouch made of flexible material used for storage or transportation of items
2. A slang term referring to the scrotum in informal contexts
3. A plural form indicating multiple instances of containers typically used for carrying heavy or bulk goods

Etymology: Sacks is simply the plural of "sack," and the surprising part of that noun is how far its meanings have travelled from a bag. The word came into Middle English and Old English from a Semitic source, perhaps Phoenician or Hebrew, passing through Latin "saccus" and Greek "sákkos," a bag of coarse cloth. Its distant cousins include Hebrew "śaq," meaning sack or sackcloth, and Akkadian "saqqu." The more striking story lies in its verb-like senses. In Middle French, "mettre à sac" ("put it in a bag") was a military command to pillage, because soldiers carried off plunder in sacks. That gave French "sac" the sense of plunder, and Italian "sacco" developed a parallel meaning. The English word "ransack" comes from this same root, and the American football "sack" of a quarterback is a later extension of the idea of seizing. The phrase "to give someone the sack" meaning dismissal is attested from 1825. It probably arose from the image of a worker leaving with his tools in a sack, or being handed a sack for his belongings when let go.

Synonyms: bags, pouches, containers, carriers, bundles