"small sack," early 13c., probably from a merger of Old English pohha (Northumbrian poha, pocca) "bag, pocket" and Old Norse poki "bag, pouch, pocket," influenced by Old North French poque (12c., Old French poche) "purse, poke, purse-net," which is probably from Germanic. All of them probably are from Proto-Germanic *puk- (source also of Middle Dutch poke, dialectal German Pfoch), from PIE root *beu-, an imitative root associated with words for "to swell" (see bull (n.2)). Compare pocket.
Wan man ʒevit þe a pig, opin þe powch. [The Proverbs of Hendyng, early 14c.]
medieval wind instrument, c. 1500, from French saquebute, a kind of bass trumpet with a slide like a trombone. The word is "presumably is identical with" [OED] Old North French saqueboute (14c.), "a lance with an iron hook for pulling down mounted men," based on resemblance, perhaps. That word is from Old North French saquier "to pull, draw" + second element perhaps bouter "to thrust" (from Proto-Germanic *buttan, from PIE root *bhau- "to strike").
Originally in English it had many variant spellings, including sagbutt, shakbott, shagbush. In Daniel iii.5, it is used wrongly to translate Aramaic (Semitic) sabbekha, the name of a stringed instrument (translated correctly in Septuagint as sambuke, and in Vulgate as sambuca, names of stringed instruments in those languages, and probably ultimately cognate with the Aramaic word). The error began with Coverdale (1535), who evidently thought it was a wind instrument and rendered it with shawm; the Geneva translators, evidently following Coverdale, chose sackbut because it sounded like the original Aramaic word, and this was followed in KJV and Revised.
Old English sæd "sated, full, having had one's fill (of food, drink, fighting, etc.), weary of," from Proto-Germanic *sathaz (source also of Old Norse saðr, Middle Dutch sat, Dutch zad, Old High German sat, German satt, Gothic saþs "satiated, sated, full"), from PIE *seto-, from root *sa- "to satisfy." Related: Sadder; saddest.
In Middle English and into early Modern English the prevailing senses were "firmly established, set; hard, rigid, firm; sober, serious; orderly and regular," but these are obsolete except in dialect. The sense development seems to have been via the notion of "heavy, ponderous" (i.e. "full" mentally or physically), thus "weary, tired of." By c. 1300 the main modern sense of "unhappy, sorrowful, melancholy, mournful" is evident. An alternative course would be through the common Middle English sense of "steadfast, firmly established, fixed" (as in sad-ware "tough pewter vessels") and "serious" to "grave." In the main modern sense, it replaced Old English unrot, negative of rot "cheerful, glad."
By mid-14c. as "expressing or marked by sorrow or melancholy." The meaning "very bad, wicked" is from 1690s, sometimes in jocular use. Slang sense of "inferior, pathetic" is from 1899; sad sack is 1920s, popularized by World War II armed forces (specifically by cartoon character invented by Sgt. George Baker, 1942, and published in U.S. Armed Forces magazine "Yank"), probably a euphemistic shortening of the common military slang phrase sad sack of shit.
early 15c., bouget, "leather pouch, small bag or sack," from Old French bougette, diminutive of bouge "leather bag, wallet, pouch," from Latin bulga "leather bag," a word of Gaulish origin (compare Old Irish bolg "bag," Breton bolc'h "flax pod"), from PIE *bhelgh- "to swell," extended form of root *bhel- (2) "to blow, swell."
The modern financial meaning "statement of probable expenditures and revenues" (1733) is from the notion of the treasury minister keeping his fiscal plans in a wallet. Also used from late 16c. in a general sense of "a stock, store, or collection of miscellaneous items," which led to 18c. transferred sense "bundle of news," hence the use of the word as the title of some newspapers.
"courage," literally "testicles, balls," 1932, in Hemingway ("Death in the Afternoon," an account of Spanish bull-fighting), from Spanish cojon "testicle," from Latin coleus "the testicles" (source of Italian coglione), literally "strainer bag," a variant of culleus "a leather sack," cognate with Greek koleos "sheath of a sword, scabbard." Both are said in some sources to be from PIE root *kel- (1) "to cover, conceal, save," but de Vaan finds it "Probably a loanword from a non-IE language, independently into Latin and Greek."
English had it as cullion a 16c. term of contempt for a man, "a mean wretch" (Shakespeare) also "a testicle" (Chaucer), from Middle English coujon, coilon (late 14c.), from Old French coillon "testicle; worthless fellow, dolt," from Latin coleus.
mid-14c., pokete, "small bag or pouch, small sack," from Anglo-French pokete (13c.), diminutive of Old North French poque "bag" (Old French pouche), from a Germanic source akin to Frankish *pokka "bag," from Proto-Germanic *puk- (see poke (n.1)).
The narrower meaning "small bag worn on the person, especially one sewn into a garment" is from early 15c. The sense of "one of the small bags or nets at the corners and sides of some billiards tables" is from 1754. The mining sense of "cavity in the ground filled with ore" is attested from 1850; the military sense of "area held by troops almost surrounded by the enemy" is from 1918; the general sense of "small area different than its surroundings" (1926) apparently was extended from the military use.
Figuratively, "one's money" (conceived as being kept in a pocket), from 1717; hence to be out of pocket "expend or lose money" (1690s); Pope Pokett (late 15c.) was figurative of the greedy and corrupt Church.
"post, letters," c. 1200, "a traveling bag, sack for keeping small articles of personal property," a sense now obsolete, from Old French male "wallet, bag, bundle," from Frankish *malha or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *malho- (source also of Old High German malaha "wallet, bag," Middle Dutch male "bag"), from PIE *molko- "skin, bag."
The sense was extended to "bag full of letters" (1650s; perhaps via phrases such as a mail of letters, 1654) and "person or vehicle that carries postal matter" (1650s). From thence, to "letters and parcels" generally (1680s) and "the system of transmission by public post" (1690s).
As a newspaper name, by 1789. In 19c. England, mail was letters going abroad, while home dispatches were post. Sense of "a personal batch of letters" is from 1844, originally American English. Mail slot "narrow opening in an exterior door of a building to receive mail delivery" is by 1893, American English. OED defines it as a "letter-slit."
c. 1200, furen, "arouse, inflame, excite" (a figurative use); literal sense of "set fire to" is attested from late 14c., from fire (n.). The Old English verb fyrian "to supply with fire" apparently did not survive into Middle English. Related: Fired; firing.
Meaning "expose to the effects of heat or fire" (of bricks, pottery, etc.) is from 1660s. Meaning "to discharge artillery or a firearm" (originally by application of fire) is from 1520s; extended sense of "to throw (as a missile)" is from 1580s. Fire away in the figurative sense of "go ahead" is from 1775.
The sense of "sack, dismiss from employment" is recorded by 1877 (with out; 1879 alone) in American English. This probably is a play on the two meanings of discharge (v.): "to dismiss from a position," and "to fire a gun," influenced by the earlier general sense "throw (someone) out" of some place (1871). To fire out "drive out by or as if by fire" (1520s) is in Shakespeare and Chapman. Fired up "angry" is from 1824 (to fire up "become angry" is from 1798).
"scrawl aimlessly," 1935, perhaps from dialectal doodle, dudle "fritter away time, trifle," or associated with dawdle (which might be the source of the dialect word). It also was a noun meaning "simple fellow" from 1620s.
LONGFELLOW: That's a name we made up back home for people who make foolish designs on paper when they're thinking. It's called doodling. Almost everybody's a doodler. Did you ever see a scratch pad in a telephone booth? People draw the most idiotic pictures when they're thinking. Dr. Von Holler, here, could probably think up a long name for it, because he doodles all the time. ["Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," screenplay by Robert Riskin, 1936; based on "Opera Hat," serialized in American Magazine beginning May 1935, by Clarence Aldington Kelland]
Related: Doodled; Doodling.
Doodle Sack. A bagpipe. Dutch. — Also the private parts of a woman. ["Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1796]
c. 1300, "a kind of sausage: the stomach or one of the entrails of a pig, sheep, etc., stuffed with minced meat, suet, blood, and seasoning, boiled and kept till needed," perhaps from a West Germanic stem *pud- "to swell" (source also of Old English puduc "a wen," Westphalian dialect puddek "lump, pudding," Low German pudde-wurst "black pudding," English dialectal pod "belly;" also see pudgy).
The other possibility is the traditional one [also in Middle English Compendium] that it is from Old French boudin "sausage," from Vulgar Latin *botellinus, from Latin botellus "sausage" (the proposed change of French b- to English p- presents difficulties, but compare purse (n.)).
The sense of "dish consisting of flour, milk, eggs, etc., originally boiled in a bag until semi-hard, often enriched with raisins or other fruit" had emerged by 1670, from extension to other foods boiled or steamed in a bag or sack (16c.). German pudding, French pouding, Swedish pudding, Irish putog are from English. Pudding-pie as a type of pastry, especially one with meat baked in it, is attested from 1590s.
