Well, it's a bagpack / rucksack / knapsack. What's the difference?
I first saw the word "rucksack" in my Game Boy Advance game "Harvest Moon". I fell in love with it and started using it. When I say it at my English class, the teacher stares at me quite strangely.
It all depends on the person's dialect and preference.
Bagpack (backpack, perhaps?), rucksack, knapsack, they're all the same. Some may use "backpack" to only refer to a larger bag carried on the back when people go camping or hiking, but others may use it interchangably.
I've also heard "bookbag". ;)
hah! I actually say "backsack", which is a direct translations of what we call it in Cajun (sac à dos, which I believe is the standard French word as well). I didn't include it because I have a feeling that it's pretty far from standard. :/
Rucksack is the English word. I think due to imported American TV, most young people in England say backpack, but old people still say rucksack. I have never heard an English person say knapsack.
I thought only climbers in the mountains (like the Cairngorms here in Scotland) carried rucksacks. They look huge things which seem to carry all their worldly goods! You never hear it used for anything else as far as I know anyway. Like CG I've never heard anyone say knapsack that I recall.
I'd say "backpack" or "bookbag" are most common nowadays in the U.S.
I usually say 'school bag'. Is this word dialectal or only one of my own quirky inventions? I sometimes, but very rarely, say 'backpack' and 'bookbag' and have never said 'rucksack' or 'knapsack' before.
I'd take a school bag or backpack to school.
Is rucksack a german word?
According to the dictionaries I looked at, "Rucksack" does indeed come from German, yes.
I looked up in the dictionary that it also lists the word ''haversack''.
''backpack'', ''knapsack'', ''rucksack'', ''bookbag'', ''haversack''.
Well, Damian, you might be right 'cause in my Harvest Moon game, I'm a farmer and I carry everything (including Tools, Fishing Rods, Seeds or even Flowers) in my rucksack.
Rucksack and Knapsack are German words.
So far, my list of synonyms is like this:
backpack
rucksack
knapsack
backsack (in Cajun)
school bag
bookbag
haversack
Can you think on more?
Use "backpack". I know that's what most people in America say... There's no point in wasting effort on learning backpack synonyms. It's useless to know those other terms.
It's not useless if one comes across it in speech or text and doesn't know the meaning, yo. ;)
