Sad Sack Definition
noun
A person who means well but is incompetent, ineffective, etc. and is consistently in trouble.
Webster's New World
(informal) A perennial victim of misfortune.
Wiktionary
Other Word Forms of Sad Sack
Noun
Singular:
sad sack
Plural:
sad-sacksOrigin of Sad Sack
US 1920s. Popularized by Sad Sack, a cartoon character and eponymous comic strip published originally June 1942 in Yank, the Army Weekly, a US Army publication for soldiers, and later syndicated in the US 1940s and 1950s. Presumably from vulgar “sad sack of shit"; Cartoonist Sgt. George Baker said he took from a “longer phrase, of a derogatory nature". The term originally referred to a well-meaning but inept soldier.
From Wiktionary
After a cartoon character created in 1942 by George Baker (1915–1975)
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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