▪ I. sac1 O. E. Law.
Forms: 1 saca, 3 sacha, sache, 3, 6 sak, 2, 4, 7 sake, 5, 7 sack, (5 saca, sacke), 7– sac.
[repr. OE. saca, accus. and genit. pl. of sacu str. fem., dispute, case at law, litigation, crime (see sake), as occurring in the 11th c. phrases saca and sócne habban (ᵹifan) ‘to have (give) sac and soke’, saca and sócne wyrðe, ‘worthy of sac and soke’.
As both words occur in Scandinavian (OIcel. sǫk, sókn), it is not unlikely that the alliterative formula may be of Danish origin, though it has not actually been found in Scandinavian law-books.]
Properly only in sac and soc (or soke), a modernized form of the expression (see above) used in charters from the reign of Cnut onward to denote certain rights of jurisdiction which by custom belonged to the lord of a manor, and which were specified (along with others) as included in the grant of a manor by the crown.
| 1020–12.. [see infangthief]. 1086 Domesday-bk. 280 b/1 Si tainus habens sacam et socam forisfecerit terram suam. [Ibid. in many other passages.] 1290 Rolls of Parlt. I. 15/1 Teneant predictas villas.., cum Sacha & Socha, Thol & Them [etc.]. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 95 Sake: (a Frensche, court justice forfet ou achesoun). c 1460 Oseney Regr. 9 [tr. charter of Hen. I c 1130] Sake and soc, tol and teme, and infangenethefe. Ibid. 10 [explanation of terms] Sacke ys pleys and amendys of mysdoynges of your men in your courte, for sacke in Englysh is cheson in frensh,..and sacke also is a forfete. 1641 Termes de la Ley 244 The priviledge called Sake is for a man to have the amerciaments of his tenants in his owne Court. a 1657 [see infangthief]. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. v. §47 There existed..side by side with the hundreds and wapentakes, large franchises or liberties in which the jurisdiction..was vested in private hands. The particular rights thus exercised were termed sac and soc. |
▪ II. sac2
(sæk)
[a. F. sac or ad. L. saccus (see sack n.1) in mod.L. applications.]
1. Biol. Any natural bag-like cavity with its membranous covering in an animal or vegetable organism. a. in animal bodies. laryngeal sacs [mod.L. sacculi laryngis], membranous pouches connected with the larynx, for the reception of air.
| 1741 Monro Anat. Nerves (ed. 3) 77 The Lacteal Sac..is contracted into a slender..Pipe. 1780 Lachrymal sac [see lachrymal a. 2]. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 205 The castor used in medicine is found in sacs formed behind the kidneys [in the beaver]. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm II. 725 A small spot is discernible upon the yolk, composed of a membraneous sac containing fluid matter in which the embryo of the future chick swims. 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 224 In the sea-star, the stomach is a capacious sac. 1854 Bushnan in Orr's Circ. Sci., Org. Nat. I. 143 In the monkeys of the old continent there are also laryngeal sacs. 1875 Houghton Sk. Brit. Ins. 140 The female beetle makes a pear-shaped flexible bag of silk, in which she encloses her eggs; the sac is attached to some water weed. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 55 The air-sacs appended to certain bronchi are nine in number. 1897 Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v., Fœtal, gestation sac,..the sac in which an embryo is enclosed in cases of extra-uterine pregnancy. |
b. in plants.
| 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 173 The embryo has no kind of vascular connexion with the sac that contains it. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. i. 5 Utricularia, an aquatic species [of Venus's Fly-trap Dionæa Muscipula], bears a number of utricles or sacs. |
2. Path. A pouch formed by the morbid dilatation of a part, the membranous envelope of a hernia, cyst, tumour, etc.
[Cf. hernial bag 1736 s.v. hernial a.]
| 1802 Med. Jrnl. VIII. 40 In consequence of the distension..a sac or pouch is usually formed, in which the food lodges. 1804 Abernethy Surg. Obs. 210 It [the blood] could be entirely expressed from the aneurismal sac. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 243 The same change follows the repeated tappings of the sacs. |
¶ 3. Used occas. for: A bag.
| 1814 M. Birkbeck Journey through France 18 In three days the same postillion left our sac at the hotel unopened, not an article missing. 1869 Lubbock Prehist. Times xi. 339 [Among the Hottentots] milk is kept in leathern sacs. |
4. Comb., as sac-bearing, sac-like adjs.; sac-winged bat, a South American bat belonging to the genus Saccopteryx or closely related genera of the family Emballonuridæ, distinguished by the pouch-like scent gland found in the wing membrane of the males.
| 1888 Cath. Househ. 30 June 13 Sac-bearing spiders. 1849 Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia III. 186 The hood or sac-like appendage of the head. 1891 W. S. Dallas in P. M. Duncan Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. v. 313 The Striped Sack-winged [sic] Bat is rather a small species. 1939 G. M. Allen Bats ix. 139 Still more remarkable..are the South American sac-winged bats,..in which a large pouchlike gland is present in the membrane that extends from the fore shoulder to the wrist. 1964 E. P. Walker et al. Mammals of World I. 235/1 Sac-winged bats generally roost in groups of 3 to 30 individuals. |
▪ III. sac3, sacch slang.
(sæk)
[Abbrev. saccharine a. and n.]
A saccharine tablet.
| 1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1257/1 Sac, a saccharine tablet: coll. (domestic, and small traders'): heard in 1917, but not gen. until 1942. 1968 ‘E. Trevor’ Place for Wicked vi. 79 Sacchs. You couldn't get them down there. |
▪ IV. sac, n.4 Chess colloq.
(sæk)
[Abbrev. of sacrifice n.]
= sacrifice n. 5 c.
| 1965 Chess Life Nov. 249/1 A careful study of the position after the ‘sac’ shows that White will win the opponent's Queen in return. 1977 Guardian Weekly 4 Dec. 23/4 A positional pawn sac to take the initiative. Ibid. 23/5 The queen sac is not hard to find. 1986 Christian Science Monitor 5 Feb. 30/3, I had been preparing this sac for the past couple of moves. |
▪ V. sac
see sack.