Sack

Sack, a name in common use in the time of Shakespeare, and occurring down to the middle of the 18th century as denoting a kind of wine. The exact nature of this famous wine, the favourite beverage of Falstaff, and the origin of the name have been much discussed. Sack or seek seems to be simply an English disguise of the Spanish seco (Fr. sec), applied to wines of the sherry genus, as distinguished from the sweet wines; a term which we now translate by 'dry.' Canary was often the wine meant by sack. In old churchwardens' accounts sack is frequently mentioned as a communion-wine. It seems to have been mixed with port; and this mixture of white and red wines survived at Douglas in the Isle of Man till at least 1887 (Notes and Queries, 1887-88).