flog

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3] The OED, noting that it was mentioned in 1676 as a cant word, takes it as presumably onomatopoeic, comparing flack and flap,^[2] and Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English also think it probably or perhaps imitative.^[4][5] If it began as school slang, the OED adds, it may have been suggested by Latin flagellō (“to whip”), the source of flagellate,^[2] and Barnhart, the American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Klein and Weekley treat it as perhaps a shortened or altered form of that Latin verb.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Dictionary.com suggests instead a blend of flay and jog, the latter a variant of jag,^[11] and the Century Dictionary, as quoted by Etymonline, a Low German word whose early traces have disappeared.^[3] Wiktionary proposes an unrecorded *floggen, from Old English *floggian, from Proto-Germanic *flukkōną (“to beat”), or else a back-formation from flogger, from Low German flogger (“a flail”).^[1] Johnson (1755) derived it from flagrum.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To whip: the word starts in underworld slang, in the 1674 second edition of Head's Canting Academy,^[13] and the OED's first record is Coles's English Dictionary of 1676,^[2][6] the date Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives, as "circa".^[8] Etymonline has the 1670s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

For more than a century the word was cant.^[13] A canting dictionary of about 1698 glosses it simply "to Whip", with flogged at the tumbler for being whipped at the cart's tail,^[13] and flogging-cove was the name for the beadle or whipper at Bridewell.^[13][10] Green's dates its passage into standard English to 1800,^[13] although Johnson (1755) had already defined it as to lash, whip or chastise, quoting Swift's "The schoolmaster's joy is to flog".^[12] It then spread to other kinds of driving and beating: urging on a horse from 1793, then generally striking or lashing from 1801, with the angling sense of casting over a stream and the cricket sense of punishing the bowling,^[2][14] and a sail flapping heavily from 1839, in Marryat.^[2][14] Etymonline dates figurative use to 1800.^[3] From these came slang senses: to beat or excel (before 1841),^[2][14] to tire out, in Sussex dialect in 1875,^[2] and to sell, first recorded in 1919, originally as military slang and for illicit sales,^[2] probably from the First World War.^[15] The reflexive use for blaming oneself appears in 1847, and for working extremely hard in 1931.^[2] In Northumberland dialect it could also mean to work with a hammer and chisel, in West Yorkshire to surpass, and in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk and Sussex to flag or droop.^[16] Collins records a New Zealand sense, to steal.^[17]

Timeline

• 1674 – to whip, in underworld slang.^[13] The OED's first record is of 1676.^[2]
• c. 1720 – in slang, to have sexual intercourse.^[13]
• 1769 – flog the glass, a nautical phrase.^[2]
• 1793 – to urge on a horse by flogging.^[2]
• 1801 – to beat or lash generally; of fishing, to cast repeatedly over a stream.^[2]
• 1839 – of a sail, to flap heavily.^[2]
• before 1841 – in slang, to beat, excel.^[2]
• 1847 – reflexive, to blame oneself.^[2]
• 1875 – in dialect, to tire out.^[2]
• 1919 – in slang, to sell, originally illicitly.^[2]
• 1931 – reflexive, to work extremely hard.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To beat hard with a whip, rod or strap, especially as a punishment: The deserters were flogged in front of the regiment.^[17][8][2]
2. To urge on a horse with a whip; figuratively, to drive or force forward.^[2][14][8]
3. To strike or lash repeatedly: Spray flogged the deck all night.^[8][2][14]
4. (angling) To cast a line repeatedly over a stretch of water.^[8][2][14]
5. (cricket) To hit the bowling hard.^[2][14]
6. Of a sail, to flap noisily or heavily.^[17][2][14]
7. To criticize harshly.^[8]
8. (British slang) To sell, especially goods that are shoddy or illicitly obtained: He flogged his old motorbike to a neighbour.^[17][2][14]
9. (New Zealand) To steal.^[17]
10. (slang) To beat or excel.^[2][14]
11. (dialect) To tire out; usually in the passive.^[2][14]
12. Reflexive, to work extremely hard, or to blame oneself severely.^[2]
13. flog a dead horse: to go on pursuing a settled matter or a hopeless aim.^[17][14]
14. flog to death: to talk about or promote something so much that people lose interest in it.^[17][14]

Word family

• flogger
• floggable
• overflog
• unflogged

Related words

• flagellate
• flagellum
• flack

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins