bag or sack

The other day I wrote a friend that I had picked up sacks of walnuts from the yard and the street. My friend pointed out that I used sacks to bag my walnuts. Hmm, I thought. Yes, I used the single-use plastic grocery bag! Or was it a sack?

Both are nouns. A grocery bag. A paper sack. Both are verbs. Bag the groceries. Sack those potatoes. I imagine sack and bag get used interchangeably but maybe not, depending perhaps upon where you live.

Their use is not much help. For instance, rucksack is a type of rigid backpack. A paper sack would be something of a rigid bag. Right? Does one have handles and the other not?

Is there a structural difference between a rucksack and a knapsack? (Yes.)

Campers use a sleeping bag.

Sailors heft a duffel bag.

Tourists have baggage.

The Huns ransacked Rome.

A triple in baseball is a three-bagger.

In the crime shows, evidence is always bagged. Never sacked. Until the evidence bags get collected in a paper sack.

When you buy alcohol it might be bagged in a paper sack. Or in a paper bag. I don’t supposed you sack the wine bottle in a bag?

Ever sling a bag of potatoes over your shoulder?

Who uses gunny sacks anymore?

A bag of boiled peanuts? I’ve never bought peanuts anytime across the south so I don’t know it you buy them by the bag or the sack? That seems to beg for a road trip.

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