sackcloth

English

Etymology

From Middle English sakcloth, sekcloth, sekclath, sekklath. By surface analysis, sack +‎ cloth.

Noun

sackcloth (countable and uncountable, plural sackcloths)

1. A coarse hessian style of cloth used to make sacks.
2. (usually with “and ashes”, also figurative) Garments worn as an act of penance.

   Synonyms: hairshirt, cilice

   After he realised the gravity of his crime he spent some time wearing sackcloth and ashes.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 144:

     Next you saw her alone, a kneeling penitent at the foot of the crucifix; her long fair hair is unbound, and the sackcloth robe is girded by a cord round her slender shape: her hands are clasped, and tears are flowing fast from the quenched radiance of those shadowy eyes;...

   • 1959, “We Will All Go Together When We Go”, in Tom Lehrer (music), An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, performed by Tom Lehrer:

     No more ashes, no more sackcloth / And an armband made of black cloth / Will someday never more adorn a sleeve

Derived terms

• wear sackcloth and ashes

Translations

cloth

• Bulgarian: зебло (bg) n (zeblo), кеневир m (kenevir)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 麻布 (zh) (mábù)

• Cornish: yskar m
• Danish: sækkelærred n
• Egyptian: (sꜣgꜣ)
• Finnish: säkkikangas (fi)
• French: toile à sac f
• German: Sackleinen n
• Greek:

  Ancient: σάκκος m (sákkos)

• Hebrew: שַׂק (he) m (shaq)
• Irish: sacéadach m, éadach lín m, éadach saic m
• Macedonian: зе́бло n (zéblo)
• Manx: aanrit-sack
• Middle English: sak
• Ottoman Turkish: قیل (qıl)
• Plautdietsch: Sakzeich n
• Portuguese: aniagem f
• Punjabi: ਤੱਪੜ m (tappaṛ)
• Russian: мешкови́на (ru) f (meškovína), дерю́га (ru) f (derjúga)
• Scottish Gaelic: aodach-cainb m
• Ukrainian: мішкови́на f (miškovýna)
• Welsh: sachliain m

figuratively: garment worn as act of penance

• Armenian: քուրձ (hy) (kʻurj)

  Old Armenian: քուրձ (kʻurj)

• Bulgarian: власеница f (vlasenica)
• Danish: sæk (da) c
• Finnish: säkki (fi)
• Hebrew: שַׂק (he) m (shaq)
• Macedonian: власе́ница f (vlasénica)
• Maori: taratara
• Russian: власяни́ца (ru) f (vlasjaníca)
• Spanish: sambenito (es) m

References

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “sackcloth”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.