Etymology

hacky sack

Today it means: A game or activity in which one or a group of players try to keep a footbag off the ground using only their feet. Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Genericized trademark of Wham-O. First attested in c. 1977. It uses a reduplication of the word sack with the word hacky; a hack, in the game's terminology, is akin to a point, and happens when every player in a group successfully passes the footbag.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.