War, law & rule

ransack

In Norse law, rannsaka was the legal search of a house for stolen goods ('house-seek'), a meaning Swedish and Danish still keep; in English it slid from searching to plundering, helped along by 'sack'.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Old Norse to Icelandic

From Old Norse to Faroese

From Old Norse to Swedish

From Old Norse to Danish, Norwegian

1200Old Norse

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

Export “ransack”

Embed “ransack”

Save “ransack”

Export “ransack”

Embed “ransack”

Save “ransack”