gag

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gaggen (“to strangle, suffocate”),^[2][3][4][5] apparently imitating the sound of someone choking.^[6][3][7][8] The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart also compare Old Norse gagháls (“with the neck thrown back”),^{[2][3][9][10]} which Etymonline thinks may have influenced the English word,^[7] and the MED adds Norwegian gaga.^[2] Partridge calls it echoic,^[11] and Skeat and Weekley compare gaggle.^[5][12] The noun is from the verb.^[6][3][7] The joke sense is of uncertain connection: the OED, Barnhart and Etymonline suggest that the slang verb "to deceive, ply with talk" (1777) and noun "made-up story" (1805) are figurative uses of this word, the idea being to stuff something down the throat of a credulous person,^[6][3][7][9] while the Oxford Dictionary of English calls the joke sense of unknown origin.^[10] Weekley linked the slang word to Scots gegg (“a hoax”),^[12] and Dictionary.com compares Old Norse gagg (“a yelp”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strangle or suffocate someone: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses gaggyn, or streyne be the throte with Latin suffoco.^{[2][6][3][12]} Surnames such as Gagge (1269) and Gaggemon (1327) may contain the word.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The violent sense died out after Middle English,^[9][6] and the word settled on the milder meaning of stopping up a person's mouth, recorded from 1509;^[6][3][14] Ayto notes that the harsh sense survived in local dialects and came back in the intransitive "choke".^[8] The noun, something thrust into the mouth, followed in 1553,^[6][3] and Shakespeare used the verb figuratively, for depriving someone of freedom of speech.^[6] The figurative noun, a check on free speech, dates from the 1620s,^[7][6] and gave the American gag-law (1798) and gag rule (1810);^[7][3] the OED notes that gag was later used opprobriously of a parliamentary majority's closure of a debate.^[6] The intransitive sense "to retch, choke" appears about 1706.^[6][7] The joke came through the theatre: from 1847 a gag was something an actor added to the written text,^[6][7] and, from 1863, a joke or humorous remark;^[6][3][7] by 1942 the verb meant to tell jokes.^[6] Earlier slang had gag, to hoax (1777), and a made-up story (1805).^[6][3] In north and east English dialects gag was also to tighten something so that it would not move, or to put a strong bit on a horse,^[15] and in the 18th-century underworld it meant to beg.^[16] The British slang be gagging for, to be desperate for, is recorded from 1942.^[6][17]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – to strangle, suffocate (obsolete).^[6][2]
• 1509 – to stop up someone's mouth to prevent speech.^[6][14][3]
• 1553 – noun, something thrust into the mouth.^[6][3]
• 1618 – figurative noun, a check on free speech.^[6]
• c. 1706 – to choke or retch.^[6][7]
• 1777 – slang, to deceive or hoax.^[6][3]
• 1805 – a made-up story, a hoax.^[6][3]
• 1810 – gag rule, a rule restricting debate.^[3]
• 1847 – theatre, lines an actor adds to the text.^[6][7]
• 1863 – a joke or humorous remark.^[6][3][7]
• 1942 – to tell jokes, and be gagging for.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop up a person's mouth, as with a piece of cloth, to keep them from speaking or crying out: The burglars gagged the guard with his own scarf.^[17][14][6]
2. To prevent from speaking freely; to censor or suppress: The new law gagged the opposition press.^[17][14][6]
3. To retch, or to cause to retch: The smell made him gag.^[17][14][6]
4. To struggle for breath; to choke.^[17][6]
5. To hold the jaws apart with a surgical gag.^[17][14]
6. To put a gag-bit on a horse.^[17][6]
7. To tell jokes; in the theatre, to add one's own lines to a part.^[6][14]
8. be gagging for (slang): to be very eager for something.^[17][6]
9. (obsolete) To strangle or suffocate.^[6][2]

Noun

1. Something put into or over the mouth to keep a person from speaking or crying out.^[4][17][14]
2. Anything that restricts free speech, such as an order forbidding public discussion; in a legislature, cloture.^[4][14][6]
3. A device placed in the mouth to hold it open, as in dentistry or surgery.^[4][14][6]
4. A joke or comic remark, or a practical joke: The whole sketch was built around one sight gag.^[4][14][6]
5. (theatre) A line or piece of business added by an actor to the written part.^[14][6]
6. An act of gagging or choking.^[4]

Word family

• gagger
• gagman
• gagster
• ungag
• sight gag
• gag rule

Related words

• gaggle

Usage notes

A fish of the southern United States, a grouper, is also called a gag; the name is of unknown origin and is recorded from 1884.^[14][6] An obsolete verb gag, to jerk or prick, or to stick out, used from the late 16th century, is probably imitative and not connected with this word.^[6][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ 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 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ 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)
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins