etymology of "sacar" - does anyone know?
Does anyone know where the word "sacar" originates from?
I ask because I see that one of it's meanings is "to dispossess of an employment", and I am wondering if this has any connection with our English slang term "To get the sack", meaning to be dismissed from employment, and if perhaps they both come from the same latin or greek root?
2 Answers
Here's what I found:
“Removal from employment” senses attested since 1825; the original formula was “to give (someone) the sack”, likely from the notion of a worker going off with his tools in a sack, or being given such a sack for his personal belongings as part of an expedient severance. Idiom exists earlier in French (on luy a donné son sac, 17c.) and Middle Dutch (iemand den zak geven). English verb in this sense recorded from 1841.
The probably derivation is the allusion to tradesmen, who owned their own tools, taking them with them in a bag or sack when they were dismissed from employment. The phrase has been known in France since the 17th century, as 'On luy a donné son sac'. The first recorded English version is in Charles Westmacott's The English Spy, 1825: "You munna split on me, or I shall get the zack for telling on ye." In his 1869 'Slang Dictionary', John Hotten records these alternatives - 'get the bag' (from the North of England) and 'get the empty' (from London).
I don't think there are a relationship between the two words. Because "sacar" is "to take off", not to fire. The most adequate word for "to fire" is "despedir".
