Other forms: satchels
A satchel is a stiff shoulder bag, often for books. A leather satchel, school satchel, sling the satchel.
The stiff flap and the long strap are what define it, and it was the standard school bag in Britain for generations before backpacks took over. Carrying weight on one shoulder is worse for the back, which is part of why they went. The Latin means a little bag.
1nounsatchelA stiff shoulder bag, often for books.
“He carried his books to school in an old leather satchel.”
satchel is a bag.
Old French sachel comes from Latin saccellum, a little bag, a double diminutive of saccus, a sack.
Latin
saccellum — money bag, purse
Old French
sachel
Middle English
sachel
English, today
satchel
Built from
First recorded circa 1340 as Middle English sachel, from Old French sachel, from Latin saccellum (“money bag, purse”), a diminutive of Latin sacculus, itself a diminutive of saccus (“bag”). See sack.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA