baggage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bagage,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French bagage (“belongings taken on a journey; the equipment of an army”),^[4][5][6] from bague (“a pack, bundle”) or the related verb baguer (“to tie up”), with the suffix -age.^[4][7][8][9] The French noun is perhaps of Germanic, probably Scandinavian origin, from the same source as bag;^[5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare baggi (“a pack, bundle”).^[5][6][3][2] The OED compares related Romance forms such as bagaje and bagaglio.^[4] For the senses applied to a woman, the OED considers some influence from bagasse (“a prostitute”) possible, from bagassa;^[4][10] the American Heritage Dictionary takes that sense perhaps from the French word, tracing it ultimately to Arabic, and Merriam-Webster derives it probably from it.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The portable equipment and provisions of an army: the OED's first quotation is from a London chronicle of about 1450,^[4] and Etymonline gives the mid-15th century, with the sense of plunder.^[5] Barnhart dates the word to about 1440, in Lydgate,^[11] where the OED finds the first use for travellers' bags (a1500).^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the 1540s the word was used figuratively for mental or spiritual encumbrances,^[4] and in the language of English Protestants after the Reformation for the rites and vestments of Catholic worship, as worthless trappings (1537–1640).^[4] It also meant rubbish or worthless talk (1542–1720)^[4][12] and, from 1594, a worthless person;^[12] Etymonline dates the sense "worthless woman, strumpet" to the 1590s and the playful "saucy or flirtatious young woman" to the 1670s.^[5][7] Johnson (1755) gave the army's equipment first, then "a worthless woman".^[13] The figurative sense of burdensome beliefs, attitudes or experiences is recorded from 1860,^[4] and emotional baggage by 1957.^[5] In the sense of travellers' luggage British English has preferred luggage and American English baggage,^[5][10] and baggage-smasher was 19th-century American slang for a railway porter.^[5] In Scotland and parts of England it could mean rubbish, and baggage was a term of reproach for women or children.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – the portable equipment of an army.^[4]
• a1500 – travellers' bags; luggage.^[4]
• 1537–1640 – the trappings of Catholic worship.^[4]
• 1542–1720 – rubbish, worthless talk.^[4]
• 1590s – a worthless woman.^[5]
• 1670s – a saucy young woman.^[5]
• 1860 – burdensome beliefs or experiences.^[4]
• 1957 – emotional baggage.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The suitcases, bags and other containers of a person's belongings packed for a journey; luggage: Passengers waited an hour for their baggage at the carousel.
2. The portable equipment and supplies of an army.
3. Feelings, beliefs or past experiences that burden or influence a person, often called emotional baggage.
4. (informal, old-fashioned) A pert or impudent young woman; also, disparagingly, an immoral woman.
5. (Ireland, informal) A cantankerous old woman.

Word family

• baggagemaster
• baggage car
• baggage handler
• bag and baggage
• excess baggage

Related words

• bag
• luggage

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)