sad sack

See also: sadsack

English

Alternative forms

sadsack

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

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

sad sack (plural sad sacks) (chiefly US)

An incompetent or inept person.
- 2007 June 3, Cara Buckley and William K. Rashbaum, "4 Men Accused of Plot to Blow Up Kennedy Airport Terminals and Fuel Lines," New York Times (retrieved 5 April 2015):
  One law enforcement official played down Mr. Defreitas’s ability to carry out an attack, calling him “a sad sack” and “not a Grade A terrorist.”
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 0362-4331:
  “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," 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," 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.

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “sad”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.