sack

A Semitic word for coarse goat-hair cloth (Hebrew śaq, 'sackcloth') was carried by traders into Greek and Latin. From Latin it reached almost every European language as the everyday word for a bag, from Gothic to Finnish, and on to Latin America, where a saco is a jacket.

Weakest linkProbable

The road to English

From Biblical Hebrew to Modern Hebrew

From Ancient Greek to Gothic

From Latin to Old High German, German

From Latin to Middle Dutch, Dutch

From Old English to Old Norse, Swedish, Finnish

From Latin to Old French, French

From Latin to Italian

From Latin to Portuguese

From Latin to Spanish, Mexican Spanish

3000 BCEProto-Semitic

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

Trade, money & letters