Know your English | Who is a sad-sack?

For representative purposes.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

What is the meaning of ‘earmark’? (J. Tara, Mumbai)

In India, this is a word that is frequently heard on television news channels when experts are invited to talk about the budget that the Finance Minister is likely to present. When the Government earmarks a certain amount of money for a particular project — for example, it could be for road widening or for cancer research — it sets aside funds to achieve its objective. This amount it puts aside is to be used only for the specified project, and not for anything else. Earmarking lets people know how the funds will be used. With the passage of time, the word has begun to be used in contexts other than finance — in everyday contexts, ‘earmark’ is used to mean ‘characteristic’ or ‘distinguishing mark’.

Most people were sad to note that only two percent of the budget had been earmarked for education.

Several hundred crores have been earmarked for cancer research.

The beaming Minister said that the newly launched car had all the earmarks of a classic.

The word ‘earmark’ is a combination of two words — ‘ear’ and ‘mark’, and when it began to be used in the English language, it had nothing to with finance; believe it or not, it had more to do with farming. In the past, in order to identify his livestock — sheep, cattle, pigs, etc. — a farmer would cut or mark the ear of every animal he owned. Every farmer used a different mark, and this helped him avoid unnecessary arguments with his neighbours.

Why are some people called ‘sad sacks’? What is the origin of the word? (T.V. Harish, Kochi)

First of all, not all dictionaries list this word. The ones that do, spell the word differently — some spell it as one word (sadsack), some as two (sad sack), while others hyphenate it (sad-sack). One thing that all dictionaries agree on, however, is that it is a word that is always used in informal contexts to refer to a clumsy individual — usually, a man. When you refer to someone as a sad sack, what you are suggesting is that the person is boring and is incapable of doing anything well. Watching the blundering fool in action, you feel pity for him because you realise that he is unlikely to succeed in life. The word can be used both as a noun and an adjective.

I was shocked to note that the new appointees were nothing more than a bunch of sad sacks.

Given our talent, don’t expect anything great. It’s likely to be a sad-sack performance.

In the 1940s, George Baker, an American soldier who fought in the Second World War, created Sad Sack, a cartoon character. The cartoon strip made its debut in newspapers in 1942, and in it, Baker depicted the life of a sad, bumbling, but well-intentioned soldier, in the U.S. army. It is this inept hero who gave us the current meaning of the word ‘sad sack’ — a blundering idiot. By the way, George Baker joined Disney and worked on some of their well-known films — Bambi, Dumbo, Pinocchio, etc.

[email protected]