different between sack vs ruin

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /sæk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophones: sac, SAC

Etymology 1

From Middle English sak (“bag, sackcloth”), from Old English sacc (“sack, bag”) and sæcc (“sackcloth, sacking”); both from Proto-West Germanic *sakku, from late Proto-Germanic *sakkuz (“sack”), borrowed from Latin saccus (“large bag”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (sákkos, “bag of coarse cloth”), from Semitic, possibly Phoenician.

Cognate with Dutch zak, German Sack, Swedish säck, Hebrew ????? (?aq, “sack, sackcloth”), Aramaic ???????, Classical Syriac ????, Ge'ez ?? (?ä?), Akkadian ???????? (saqqu), Egyptian s?g?. Doublet of sac.

?erný and Forbes suggest the word was originally Egyptian, a nominal derivative of s?q (“to gather or put together”) that also yielded Coptic ??? (sok, “sackcloth”) and was borrowed into Greek perhaps by way of a Semitic intermediary. However, Vycichl and Hoch reject this idea, noting that such an originally Egyptian word would be expected to yield Hebrew *??? rather than ?????. Instead, they posit that the Coptic and Greek words are both borrowed from Semitic, with the Coptic word perhaps developing via Egyptian s?g?.

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel.
2. The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal to 13 stone (182 pounds), or in other sources, 26 stone (364 pounds).
   • The American sack of salt is 215 pounds; the sack of wheat, two bushels. — McElrath.
   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. 27, page 202

     Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. [...] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
3. (uncountable) The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city.

   The sack of Rome.

4. (uncountable) Loot or booty obtained by pillage.
5. (American football) A successful tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. See verb sense⁴ below.
6. (baseball) One of the square bases anchored at first base, second base, or third base.

   He twisted his ankle sliding into the sack at second.

7. (informal) Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position, usually as give (someone) the sack or get the sack. See verb sense⁵ below.

   The boss is gonna give her the sack today.

   He got the sack for being late all the time.

8. (colloquial, US) Bed; usually as hit the sack or in the sack. See also sack out.
9. (dated) (also sacque) A kind of loose-fitting gown or dress with sleeves which hangs from the shoulders, such as a gown with a Watteau back or sack-back, fashionable in the late 17th to 18th century; or, formerly, a loose-fitting hip-length jacket, cloak or cape.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book IV, chapter vii, Google Books

     Molly, therefore, having dressed herself out in this sack, with a new laced cap, and some other ornaments which Tom had given her, repairs to church with her fan in her hand the very next Sunday.

   • 1780, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 151:

     Her Dress, too, was of the same cast, a thin muslin short sacque and Coat lined throughout with Pink, – a modesty bit – and something of a very short cloak half concealed about half of her old wrinkled Neck […].

   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 13:

     This lady's interesting figure, on her wedding-day, was attired in a sacque and petticoat of the most expensive brocaded white silk, resembling net-work, enriched with small flowers […] .

10. (dated) A sack coat; a kind of coat worn by men, and extending from top to bottom without a cross seam.
11. (vulgar, slang) The scrotum.

    He got passed the ball, but it hit him in the sack.

Synonyms

• (bag): bag, tote, poke (obsolete)
• (booty obtained by pillage): See Thesaurus:booty
• (informal: dismissal from employment): the axe, pink slip, the boot, the chop, the elbow, one's cards, the old heave-ho
• (colloquial: bed): hay, rack
• (vulgar slang: scrotum): See Thesaurus:scrotum

Hyponyms

• (bag): bindle

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (sakku)

Translations

Verb

sack (third-person singular simple present sacks, present participle sacking, simple past and past participle sacked)

1. To put in a sack or sacks.

   Help me sack the groceries.

   • 1903, Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Chapter VII,

     The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag […]

2. To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders.
3. To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from.

   The barbarians sacked Rome.

   • 1898, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, The Iliad, Book IX,

     It [a lyre] was part of the spoils which he had taken when he sacked the city of Eetion […]

4. (American football) To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he is able to throw a pass.
   • 1995, John Crumpacker and Gwen Knapp, "Sack-happy defensive line stuns Dolphins", SFGate.com, November 21,

     On third down, the rejuvenated Rickey Jackson stormed in over All-Pro left tackle Richmond Webb to sack Marino yet again for a 2-yard loss.

5. (informal) To discharge from a job or position; to fire.

   He was sacked last September.

   • 1999, "Russian media mogul dismisses Yeltsin's bid to sack him", CNN.com, March 5,

     […] Boris Berezovsky on Friday dismissed President Boris Yeltsin's move to sack him from his post as executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States, […]

Synonyms

• (plunder, pillage): loot, ransack
• (to remove someone from a job): can, dismiss, fire, lay off, let go, terminate, make redundant, give the axe, give the boot, give (someone) their cards, give the chop, give the elbow, give the old heave-ho, See also: Thesaurus:lay off
• (slang: to hit in the groin): rack

Derived terms

• sackable
• sackage
• sacker
• sack out
• sack up

Translations

Etymology 2

From earlier (wyne) seck from Middle French (vin (“wine”)) sec (“dry”), from Latin siccus (“dry”)

Noun

sack (countable and uncountable, plural sacks)

2. (dated) A variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry.

   • Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? ...I ne'er drank sack in my life...

   • Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack...let a cup of sack be my poison...Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it?

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     How didst thou 'scape? How cam'st thou hither? swear / by this bottle how thou cam'st hither—I escaped upon / a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved overboard, by / this bottle!

   • The New Sporting Magazine (volume 15, page 23)

     The vesper bell had rung its parting note; the domini were mostly caged in comfortable quarters, discussing the merits of old port; and the merry student had closed his oak, to consecrate the night to friendship, sack, and claret.

Derived terms

• sack-whey

See also

• claret, hock, tent

Etymology 3

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. Dated form of sac (“pouch in a plant or animal”).
   • 1938, The Microscope (volumes 1-2, page 56)

     Sometimes fishes are born that have rudimentary yolk sacks. Such young are born prematurely.

Etymology 4

Verb

sack (third-person singular simple present sacks, present participle sacking, simple past and past participle sacked)

1. Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

See also

• sack on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sack in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

References

• Forbes, Robert Jacobus (1955) Studies in Ancient Technology, vol. IV, p. 66
• ?erný, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 149
• Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, ?ISBN, page 186
• Hoch, James E. (1994) Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ?ISBN, page 269

Anagrams

• ACKs, SKCA, acks, cask

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse sokkr, from Latin soccus (“slipper”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or another language from Asia Minor.

Pronunciation

• (masc.; str.) IPA^(key): /?s?kh?/

  Rhymes: -??k?

• (masc. def.; str.) IPA^(key): /?s?t??h?en/
• (masc., fem.; wk.) IPA^(key): /²s?kh?/

  Rhymes: -??k?

Noun

sack m or f

1. Sock.

Derived terms

• tåsack

English

Etymology

From Middle English ruyne, ruine, from Old French ruine, from Latin ru?na (“overthrow, ruin”), from ru? (“I fall down, tumble, sink in ruin, rush”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??u?.?n/
• Rhymes: -u??n

Noun

ruin (countable and uncountable, plural ruins)

1. (countable, sometimes in the plural) The remains of a destroyed or dilapidated construction, such as a house or castle.

   • The Veian and the Gabian towirs shall fall, / And one promiscuous ruin cover all; / Nor, after length of years, a stone betray / The place where once the very ruins lay.

   • a. 1812, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, sermon

     The labour of a day will not build up a virtuous habit on the ruins of an old and vicious character.
2. (uncountable) The state of being a ruin, destroyed or decayed.

3. (uncountable) Something that leads to serious trouble or destruction.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Youth and Age

     The errors of young men are the ruin of business.

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He […] played a lone hand, […]. Most lone wolves had a moll at any rate—women were their ruin—but if the Bat had a moll, not even the grapevine telegraph could locate her.

4. (obsolete) A fall or tumble.
5. A change that destroys or defeats something; destruction; overthrow.
   • 1768, Thomas Gray, The Bard

     Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!

6. (uncountable) Complete financial loss; bankruptcy.

Translations

Verb

ruin (third-person singular simple present ruins, present participle ruining, simple past and past participle ruined or (dialectal, nonstandard) ruint)

1. (transitive) To cause the fiscal ruin of.

   With all these purchases, you surely mean to ruin us!

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     In one way, indeed, he bade fair to ruin us; for he kept on staying week after week, and at last month after month, so that all the money had been long exhausted...

2. To destroy or make something no longer usable.

   He ruined his new white slacks by accidentally spilling oil on them.

   • 1857, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Golden Mile-Stone

     By the fireside there are old men seated, / Seeing ruined cities in the ashes.

3. To cause severe financial loss to; to bankrupt or drive out of business.

   The crooked stockbroker's fraudulent scheme ruined dozens of victims; some investors lost their life savings and even their houses.

4. To upset or overturn the plans or progress of, or to have a disastrous effect on something.

   My car breaking down just as I was on the road ruined my vacation.

5. To make something less enjoyable or likeable.

   I used to love that song, but being assaulted when that song was playing ruined the song for me.

6. To reveal the ending of (a story); to spoil.
7. (obsolete) To fall into a state of decay.
   • 1636, George Sandys, Paraphrase upon the Psalmes and upon the Hymnes dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments

     Though he his house of polisht marble build, / Yet shall it ruine like the Moth's fraile cell

8. (transitive, historical) To seduce or debauch, and thus harm the social standing of.

   The young libertine was notorious for ruining local girls.

Synonyms

• destroy
• fordo
• ruinate
• wreck
• See also Thesaurus:spoil

Antonyms

• build
• construct
• found
• produce

Related terms

• ruination
• ruinable
• ruiner
• ruinous
• ruint

Translations

Further reading

• ruin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ruin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ruin at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Irun

Asturian

Adjective

ruin m sg (feminine singular ruina, neuter singular ruino, masculine plural ruinos, feminine plural ruines)

1. weedy

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ruun. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rœy?n/
• Hyphenation: ruin
• Rhymes: -œy?n

Noun

ruin m (plural ruinen, diminutive ruintje n)

1. gelding

See also

• hengst

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin ruina

Noun

ruin m (definite singular ruinen, indefinite plural ruiner, definite plural ruinene)

1. ruin (often in plural form when referring to buildings)

References

• “ruin” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin ruina

Noun

ruin m (definite singular ruinen, indefinite plural ruinar, definite plural ruinane)

1. ruin (often in plural form when referring to buildings)

References

• “ruin” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Etymology

From an earlier *ruino, from ruina, or from a Vulgar Latin root *ru?nus, ultimately from Latin ru?na. Compare Portuguese ruim, Catalan roí.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rwin/, [?rw?n]

Adjective

ruin (plural ruines)

1. contemptible, mean, heartless

   Synonyms: vil, despreciable

2. mean, stingy

   Synonyms: avaro, mezquino, tacaño, usurero, agarrado, cicatero

3. wild; unruly

   Synonyms: salvaje, agresto

4. rachitic

   Synonym: raquítico

Swedish

Noun

ruin c

1. a ruin (remains of a building)
2. ruin (financial bankruptcy)

Declension

Related terms

• ruinera

Anagrams

• urin

Tetum

Noun

ruin

1. bone