Interesting term, this one. Anu writes that it's often applied to soldiers.

I remember having read the term years ago--probably when I was a little girl, which would put it over four decades ago--but do not remember the soldier connection.

I suppose some kind of pun could be employed, too, applying the term to poor, dry sherry. Which one of Shakespeare's characters loved sack so much? It was a Sir Toby Belch kind of character, but not Sir Toby. His name began with an "F"--and I'm drawing a blank here. Oh, Falstaff! That's it! Falstaff and his sack!

Bard regards,
WW

Dear WW: During WWII, there were publications STARS AND STR{PES. fpr example. One of them< I can't remember which, had a reqular cartoon feature, SAD SACK, with a real loser, always in trouble from doing
something against regulations, and getting punishment details, policing the area for cigarette butts, etc.
The phrase that inspired it was: "He's a sad sack of shit." Incidentally, there was the word "blivet" which
meant two hundred pounds of shit in a hundred pound sack.

i know sadsack as one of the raggy dolls, a cartoon some years ago. they were all broken toys that no one wanted. cant remember very much of it except that sadsack was my favourite and the theme tune began 'raggy dolls raggy dolls, dolls like you and me'

Take a look:
http://sadsack.hypermart.net/OriginalComicStrip.htm

eeya, i've just found it! ive not heard this since i was tiny ( admittedly not THAT long ago) listen to it yourself http://80scartoons.8k.com/raggydollssounds.html

Ouch! Am I the only one old enough to admit I've never heard of any of them? What newspaper carries them? Just figured out: 80S must mean 80's. No wonder they're strange to me. I'm still mourning the loss of Calvin & Hobbes.

who&what?

Slithy,

Thanks for providing those comic strips! I especially liked how the artist drew the beer bellies! Those soldiers and officers looked like pregnant women about two months overdue!

WW

who&what?

Only (IMHO) the funniest comic strip ever. Check it out here or at a bunch of other sites, as well as collections of strips reprinted in book form.
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/hills/5967/indexa.html