coal sackn.
/ˈkəʊl sak/, U.S. /ˈkoʊl ˌsæk/ 1. A sack for carrying coal.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > bag > [noun] > sack > for other specific contents
sand-poke1415
hopsack1481
coal sack1574
hop-bag1604
sugar-bag1764
nutsack1842
bale-sack1883
sugar sack1891
1574 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories Archdeaconry Richmond (1853) 255 Cole sacks.
1638 J. Ford Fancies i. 9 Let me be buried in a cole sacke.
a1640 P. Massinger City-Madam (1658) iv. iii. 60 A Coal-sack for a winding-sheet.
1748 Gentleman's Mag. June 282/1 Coal-sacks are to be 4 feet 2 inches long.
1763 London Chron. 5 May 437/3 Housekeepers..are advised to look if the coal sacks are stampt.
1854 Hull Improv. Act 52 Penalty for using undersized coal-sacks.
1904 Shearer (Sydney) 24 Dec. 3/3 Boys of tender years carrying old coal sacks, hessian or `shook' shop-window-blinds for swags, and burnt-out lead tins, syrup tins, or half kerosene tins for billies.
1980 Globe & Mail (Canada) (Nexis) 16 Aug. I collected the empties in a big coal sack and sold them on the Monday to the local junk man for 10 cents a dozen.
2011 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 23 Nov. 6 We went down to the centre of Kampala with coal sacks and cardboard boxes and joined some of the children who call the streets their home.
2. Astronomy. A dark nebula giving the appearance of a gap in the stars of the Milky Way; spec. (usually the Coal Sack) one near the Southern Cross (formerly also called Black Magellanic Cloud).
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the world > the universe > constellation > nebula > [noun] > dark nebula > coal-sack
cloud1694
coal sack1844
black hole1876
1844 E. O. Kendall Uranography 184 The Magellanic Clouds, which are also called the Cap-clouds and the Coal-sacks, are three dark spots in the bright part of the Milky-way by the Southern Cross.
1847 J. F. W. Herschel Results Astron. Observ. iv. 384 That singular vacuity on the south following side of the cross, called the ‘Coal-sack’, a pear-shaped oval, whose greatest length is about 8°, and breadth 5°.
1870 R. A. Proctor Other Worlds than Ours xi. 264 In the southern Coal-sack there are minute telescopic stars.
1940 G. Gamow Birth & Death of Sun ix. 188 Two well-known dark holes in the Milky Way, named the ‘Coal Sacks’ by astronomically inclined seamen.
1993 D. Malin View of Universe v. 94 The Coalsack is also used..as an informal measure of the darkness and transparency of the night sky.
2007 S. R. Coe Nebulae x. 91 My most memorable observation of the Coal Sack is from the deck of the cruise ship Dawn Princess off the coast of South America, waiting for a solar eclipse.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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