Etymology Dictionary

SACKBUT,  a kind of wind-instrument.  (F.,—Span.,—Hybrid of Heb. and Teutonic)   In Dan. iii. 5.   The sack-but resembled the modern trombone, and was a wind instrument; the word is used to translate the Heb. sabbeká (with initial samech), Gk. σαμβύκη, Lat. sambuca, which was a stringed instrument.   There is no connection between these words and the sackbut.—F. saquebute, a sackbut, trombone; Littré.—Span. sacabuche (nautical word), a tube or pipe which serves as a pump; also, a sackbut; Neuman.   Cf. Port. sacabuxa, saquebuxo, a sackbut.   β. The origin is doubtful; the first part of the word is plainly derived from Span. sacar, to draw out, with reference to the tube of the instrument; but I can find no satisfactory solution of the whole word.   The Span. buche means the maw, crop, or stomach of an animal, and, colloquially, the human stomach.   Hence the suggestion in Webster, that sacabuche means 'that which exhausts the stomach or chest;' a name possibly given in derision from the exertion used in playing it.   γ. Adopting this etymology, we may further note that sacar, to draw out extract, empty, is the same word as the O. F. sacquer, to draw out hastily, and also has the same sense as O. F. desacher, to draw out of a sack, all of these being derived from Low Lat. saccus, a sack, of Heb. origin; see Sack (2) and Sack (1).   δ. The word buche is derived by Diez from the Teutonic, viz. from O. H. G. bózo, a bunch, which from bózen, to beat; see Boss.