sad sack

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word sad sack. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word sad sack, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say sad sack in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word sad sack you have here. The definition of the word sad sack will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofsad sack, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: sadsack

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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” as cartoonist Sgt. George Baker said he took it from a “longer phrase, of a derogatory nature”. The term originally referred to a well-meaning but inept soldier.[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

sad sack (plural sad sacks) (chiefly US)

  1. An incompetent or inept person.
  2. A perennial failure or victim of misfortune.
    Synonyms: defeatist, loser
    • 2010 July 26, Michiko Kakutani, “Love Found Amid Ruins of Empire”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      “Super Sad” takes as its Romeo and Juliet, its Tristan and Iseult, a middle-aged sad sack named Lenny Abramov and a much younger beauty named Eunice Park.
    • 2013 April 27, “Movie capsules: Arthur Newman”, in 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”, in 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.
    • 2024 May 20, Alissa Wilkinson, “What We Lose When ChatGPT Sounds Like Scarlett Johansson”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      So Samantha, the A.I. assistant with whom the sad-sack divorcé Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) fell in love in “Her,” felt like a futuristic revelation.

See also

References

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sad”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading