Meanings
plural haversacks
- A small, strong bag carried on the back or the shoulder, usually with only one strap, and originally made of canvas.
When I went, I left from the station / With a haversack and some trepidation
1990, Chris Lowe, Neil Tennant, “Being Boring”, performed by Pet Shop Boys1 more example
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.
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 - archaicAn oat-sack, or nosebag for a horse.
Synonyms & antonyms
nouna bag carried by a strap on your back or shoulder
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- GermanHabersack
- Low GermanHaaversack
- Frenchhavresac
- Englishhaversack
From French havresac, from Low German Haaversack and/or German Habersack, Hafersack (literally “oat-sack”), from Hafer + Sack. Compare also Dutch haverzak.
More words from French, Low German, German
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek γυλιός
- γυλιός (guliós)shoulder bag
Bulgarian сухарна торба, мешка
- сухарна торба (suharna torba)shoulder bag
- мешка (meška)shoulder bag
Dutch haverzak
- haverzakoat bag
Finnish olkareppu, kaurasäkki
- olkareppushoulder bag
- kaurasäkkioat bag
French havresac
- havresacshoulder bag
German Brotbeutel, Hafersack
- Brotbeutelshoulder bag
- Hafersackoat bag
Greek ταγάρι
- ταγάρι (tagári)shoulder bag
Hungarian tarisznya
- tarisznyashoulder bag
Irish mála lóin
- mála lóinshoulder bag
Polish chlebak
- chlebakshoulder bag
Cite this entry
haversack. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haversack
“haversack.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haversack. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “haversack,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haversack.
Source: haversack on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.