sad sack
See also: sadsack
English
Etymology
US 1920s. Popularized by Sad Sack, a cartoon character and eponymous comic strip published originally June 1942 in Yank, the Army Weekly, a US Army publication for soldiers, and later syndicated in the US 1940s and 1950s. Presumably from vulgar “sad sack of shit”; Cartoonist Sgt. George Baker said he took from a “longer phrase, of a derogatory nature”. The term originally referred to a well-meaning but inept soldier.[1]
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
- (idiomatic, usually hyphenated when used attributively) An incompetent or inept person.
- 2007 June 3, Cara Buckley and William K. Rashbaum, "4 Men Accused of Plot to Blow Up Kennedy Airport Terminals and Fuel Lines," New York Times (retrieved 5 April 2015):
- One law enforcement official played down Mr. Defreitas’s ability to carry out an attack, calling him “a sad sack” and “not a Grade A terrorist.”
- 2007 June 3, Cara Buckley and William K. Rashbaum, "4 Men Accused of Plot to Blow Up Kennedy Airport Terminals and Fuel Lines," New York Times (retrieved 5 April 2015):
- (idiomatic, usually hyphenated when used attributively) A perennial victim of misfortune.
- 2013 April 27, "Movie capsules: Arthur Newman," Boston Globe (retrieved 5 April 2015):
- Weary of his drab life with its nowhere job, failed marriage, boring girlfriend, and estranged teenage son, a middle-aged sad sack fakes his death, changes his identity, and hits the road.
- 2014 March 29, Zach Schonfeld, "Film Review: Jason Schwartzman Is Charmingly Inept in 7 Chinese Brothers," Newsweek (retrieved 5 April 2015):
- We meet him as he's on his way out, taking the news with equal parts tantrum and sad-sack acceptance.
- 2013 April 27, "Movie capsules: Arthur Newman," Boston Globe (retrieved 5 April 2015):
References
- “sad” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
Further reading
- “sad sack” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.
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