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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2013-05-09 09:42:37

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2853

sadcloth << sackcloth

Sackcloth, a cheap fabric with rough threads and loose weave, is often used to make bags for holding foodstuffs. The word “sackcloth” is associated with sadness, perhaps because of sackcloth’s role in the Hebrew Scriptures as an article of mourning wear (e.g, Isaiah 20). 1 A few English speakers, accordingly, permute “sackcloth” into “sadcloth” ( but only a few – a mere half dozen examples on the web). Three of them:

Psychobabble forum post: “with bowed head clad in sadcloth and ashes sending humble rays of undepression to everyone everywhere”

Comment on Carribean newspaper site: “Please put on sad cloth and ashes and pray”

Comment on another Carribean site: “ Maybe Claud will put on sad cloth and ashes and it will come to pass.”


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1 Interestingly, the Hebrew/Semitic word for the fabric/garment is “saq,” apparently a cognate of the Indo-European “sack.”

Last edited by kem (2013-05-15 09:23:17)


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