Etymology: Apparently < Middle Dutch pac (earliest in Flanders (see note below); Dutch pak ), cognate with Middle Low German pak , packe ; further etymology unknown; it is not impossible that the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German words might instead reflect a borrowing from Middle English. Compare (probably ultimately < Middle Dutch or Middle English) Anglo-Norman pakke (1410), Middle French, French †pacque (1510), post-classical Latin paccum , paccus (frequently c1300–1506 in British sources); compare also the corresponding Anglo-Norman, Middle French, and post-classical Latin verb forms at pack v.¹, which are attested earlier than the respective nouns. In some later uses (compare senses 8, 11a) < pack v.¹The earliest attestation in Dutch is of 1199 from Ghent, in Warnkönig-Gheldolf Hist. de Gand 236 (in a post-classical Latin context) ‘Omne pac, quod in curru fertur, sive parvum, sive magnum, si fuerit funiculatum, debet quatuor denarios’. Pac occurs also at Utrecht in 1244 (Höhlbaum Hans. Urkundenbuch I. 109). In England, the word and the corresponding verb (pack v.¹) appear earliest in connection with the wool trade, at a time when the trade in English wool was chiefly with the Low Countries. With early use in English compare also the surname William Pakbyndere (1258), apparently showing an (otherwise unattested) occupational term packbinder , and see also discussion of surname evidence at packet n. Compare Middle High German (late) pack (German Pack ) < Dutch pac or Middle Low German pak ; Old Icelandic pakki , Old Swedish pakke (Swedish packe ), Old Danish pakke (Danish pakke ) < Middle Low German packe . With sense 4a compare Middle Low German pak , German Pack , Swedish pack , Danish pak group of (undesirable) people. It is unlikely that the word was Romance in origin. The French examples of pacque and pacqhuus packhouse n. (in Flanders and Picardy) are probably < Middle Dutch, and post-classical Latin paccus only occurs in British sources. The word is late in Italian (1804 as pacco ). Welsh pac (14th cent.) and Irish paca are from English. A connection with bag n. has been suggested, but the uncertain early history of both words makes this difficult to assess.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; compare pack v.², which is first attested somewhat later. Perhaps originally a variant of pact n., or perhaps a specific sense development of pack n.¹ (compare note below on quot. a1475); both words (and the related verbs) have probably influenced the development of the present word and pack v.²As regards the possibility of origin as a variant of pact n., final -ct is commonly reduced in Scots and in some modern English dialects to -ck or -k (compare forms at fact n., int., and adv., direct v., etc.), and there is also a small amount of evidence of such change in other varieties in Middle English and in the 16th cent. (compare forms at correct v.), and (if the verb were taken to be in fact as early as the noun) a confusion between pact and pack't , pack'd is also conceivable. Middle Eng. Dict. s.v. pak(e treats quot. a1475 as showing figurative use of pack n.¹, but the text's most recent editor (T. L. Burton (1999)) regards this instead as an example of the present word.

Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps < either pack n.² or pack v.², but compare also pack n.¹ II.The following apparently shows a parallel participial form packed in the same sense as quot. 1686 at sense A. below:1894 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words 520 Aa wis diggin' the garden, and the robin kept at me foot aall the time; aa nivver seed sic a packt bord.

Etymology: < pack n.¹ Compare post-classical Latin pakkare (1290, 1341, 1440 in British sources), impaccare (1280, 1504 in British sources; compare impack v.), Anglo-Norman enpaker (1294), pakker (a1327), Middle French (Flanders) packer (1340; French †pacquier (16th cent.), pacquer (1530 in Palsgrave, rare)), and also Middle Dutch pakken (Dutch pakken ), Middle Low German pakken ( > Old Swedish pakka (Swedish packa ), Old Danish pakke (Danish pakke )), Middle High German (late) pakken (German packen ). Compare slightly earlier packing n.¹In to pack out 2 at Phrasal verbs after Afrikaans pak uit, imperative of uitpak . The present stem form pact probably shows generalization of the past tense and past participle form (compare quot. 1683 at repack v.).