Etymologically
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baggage

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbæɡɪd͡ʒ/[1]

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

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)