sackcloth
(ˈsækklɒθ, -ɔːθ)
Forms: 4 sekk-clathe, sekklath, 5 sekclath, -cloth, cekclothe, sak clothe, 6 sack(e)cloth(e, sacclothe, sack-cloath, 6– sackcloth.
[f. sack n.1 + cloth.]
1. a. A coarse textile fabric (now of flax or hemp) used chiefly in the making of bags or sacks and for the wrapping up of bales, etc.; sacking.
| 1373–4 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 578 In Sekklath empt. in villa et in patria, xxvjs. iiijd. c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 290 Ceres, the goddesse, in a garment Of sak clothe..Embrowderyd with sheues & sykelys bent. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. cix, Als like ȝe bene, as..sek-cloth is vnto fyne cremesye. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 64/1 Cek, or cekclothe, or poke, saccus. 1484–5 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 415 Sol. pro ix uln. de Sekclath pro altaribus ecclesiæ, ijs. iijd. 1548 Thomas Ital. Dict. (1567), Canauaccio, canuasse or sackeclothe. 1623 Markham Cheap Husb. i. iv. (ed. 3) 50 Cloath him temperately, as with a single cloth, of canuase or sacke-cloth. 1896 Daily News 21 Apr. 6/4 The latest novelty in dress materials is sackcloth... It is common hemp sacking,..but let no one imagine for a single moment that it is cheap. The open canvas ground is intended to be lined with the richest..silks and satins, and itself forms a groundwork for elaborate embroideries. |
b. As the material of mourning or penitential garb; also (in contrast with ‘purple’ or ‘gold’) as the coarsest possible clothing, indicative of extreme poverty or humility. in sackcloth and ashes (Biblical): clothed in sackcloth and having ashes sprinkled on the head as a sign of lamentation or abject penitence. † Also with a (cf. sack n.1 5).
The penitential ‘sackcloth’ of the Bible (Heb. saq, Gr. σάκκος) was a dark-coloured fabric of goats' or camels' hair.
| 13.. St. Alexius 191 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 178 All hir bodi scho made bare & did apon hir a sekk-clathe. 1526 Tindale Matt. xi. 21 They had repented longe agon in sack cloth and asshes. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xxxiv. 13 When they were sick, I put on a sack cloth. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 5 He whiche cloteth [sic] an ape in purple, & a king in sacke-cloth. 1575 Gascoigne Flowers Wks. 51, I was in sack-cloth I, now am I clad in gold, And weare such robes, as I my selfe take plesure to behold. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iii. 14 And to augment her painefull penaunce more,..shee..next her wrinkled skin rough sacke⁓cloth wore. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. Disc. iv. 128 S. Lewis King of France wore sack-cloth every day unless sicknesse hindred. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 47 And being clad in Sackcloth, he was to lie on the Ground, and..implore God's Mercy. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlviii. V. 55 While he groaned and prayed in sackcloth and ashes, his brother..smiled at his remorse. 1829 Lytton Devereux iv. v, I should have gone into a convent and worn sackcloth. a 1839 Praed Poems (1864) II. 356 The low and great, Who in their sack⁓cloth or their purple, creep Beneath the summit of the viewless steep. 1885 ‘H. Conway’ Fam. Affair xxvi, He knew that for all that had befallen she was mourning in mental sackcloth and ashes. |
† c. pl. [See clothes.] Garments of sackcloth.
| 1594 Greene & Lodge Looking-gl. (1598) H 4, He sits him down in sack-cloathes, his hands and eyes reared to heauen. |
d. attrib. and Comb., as sackcloth-bag, sackcloth-garb, sackcloth-mourner, sackcloth-prophecy, etc.; sackcloth-bound, sackcloth-clad adjs.
| 1679 C. Nesse Antichrist 127 The sackcloth-prophecy of the witnesses. Ibid. 221 A sackcloth-mourner. Ibid. 229 Italy it self had several sackcloth-witnesses. Ibid. 232 That famous sackcloth-prophet John Wickliffe. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. ii. lxxviii, Ere his sackcloth garb Repentance wear. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. iii, It's ill-leaping now-a-days in a sackcloth-bag. 1843 J. G. Whittier Lays of My Home 14 And mate with maniac women, loose-haired and sackcloth-bound. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. xiv. viii. (1864) IX. 287 The sackcloth-clad bare-foot friar. |
† 2. A material for ladies' dresses. Cf. sack n.1 6.
| 1571 in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 136 Sackclothe stripte with sylver. [1896: see 1.] |
Hence ˈsackclothed a. rare, clad in sackcloth; also fig.
| 1641 Bp. Hall Mischief Faction Rem. Wks. (1660) 69 To be joviall when God calls to mourning,..to glitter when he would have us sackcloth'd and squalid, he hates it to the death. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. ix. 250 A healthy force of mind utterly incompatible with..the petty solicitudes of sackclothed abstinence. 1922 Blunden Shepherd 23 And rising floods gleam silver on the verge Of sackclothed skies and melancholy grounds. 1924 R. Clements Gipsy of Horn ix. 169 Half-bred negroes and Indians, sackclothed and uncivilised. |