haversack

English

haversack with two straps

Etymology

From French havresac, from Low German Haaversack and/or German Habersack, Hafersack (literally “oat-sack”), from Hafer + Sack. Compare also Dutch haverzak.

Noun

haversack (plural haversacks)

1. A small, strong bag carried on the back or the shoulder, usually with only one strap, and originally made of canvas.
   • 1968, Edward Abbey, “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks”, in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, McGraw-Hill; republished New York: Touchstone, 1968, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 49:

     And most significant, these hordes of nonmotorized tourists, hungry for a taste of the difficult, the original, the real, do not consist solely of people young and athletic but also of old folks, fat folks, pale-faced office clerks who don’t know a rucksack from a haversack, and even children.

   • 1990, Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant (lyrics and music), “Being Boring”, performed by Pet Shop Boys:

     When I went, I left from the station / With a haversack and some trepidation

2. (archaic) An oat-sack, or nosebag for a horse.

Translations

shoulder bag

• Bulgarian: сухарна торба f (suharna torba), мешка (bg) f (meška)
• Finnish: olkareppu
• German: Brotbeutel (de) m
• Greek: ταγάρι (el) n (tagári)

  Ancient: γυλιός m (guliós)

• Irish: mála lóin m
• Plautdietsch: Rigjesak m
• Polish: chlebak (pl) m

oat bag

• Dutch: haverzak
• Finnish: kaurasäkki
• German: Hafersack

See also

• backpack
• knapsack
• rucksack

Further reading

• haversack on Wikipedia.Wikipedia