Online Encyclopedia

PACK (apparently from the root pak-, ...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 441 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PACK (apparently from the root pak-, paq-, seen in
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Lat. pangere, to fasten; cf. " compact ")
  , primarily a bundle or parcel of goods securely wrapped and fastened for transport . The word, in this sense, is chiefly used of the bundles carried by pedlars . It was in early use, according to the New
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English
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Dictionary, in the wool trade, and may have been introduced from the
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Netherlands . As a measure of
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weight or quantity the
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term has been in use, chiefly locally, for various commodities, e.g. of wool, 240 lb, of gold-leaf 20 books of 25 leaves each . In a transferred sense, a " pack " is a collection or gathering of persons, animals or things; and the verb means generally to gather together in a compact
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body . " Pack-ice " is the floating ice which covers wide areas in the polar seas, broken into large pieces which are driven (packed) together by wind and current so as to form practically a continuous
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sheet . " Packet," a small parcel, a diminutive of " pack," was first confined in meaning to a parcel of despatches carried by a
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post, especially the state despatches or "
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mail "; and " packet " properly " packet-boat," was the name given to the vessels which carried these state despatches .

End of Article: PACK (apparently from the root pak-, paq-, seen in Lat. pangere, to fasten; cf. " compact ")
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OTTO VON PACK (c. 1480-1537)

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