Etymologically
Log in

jag

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word jag

Pronunciation

jag1 sharp projection; to cut unevenly

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Onomatopoeia
First attested
c. 1400 Morte Arthure
From
Middle English jagge

Etymology

The word for a sharp point or a cut edge is inherited from Middle English jagge (noun) and jaggen (verb),[2][3][4] of uncertain origin.[5][6][7][4] The OED thinks the formation is probably imitative, and notes that in some senses it overlaps with dag and comes close to tag and rag;[8] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it symbolic of sudden movement or unevenness,[9][10] the Shorter Oxford relates it to jog,[11] and Klein calls it probably imitative.[12] It has no cognates in the other Germanic or the Romance languages, and the OED rejects Scottish Gaelic gàg (“split, rent, fissure”) on phonetic grounds.[8] The Middle English Dictionary suggested Old French *jagaye, a variant of zagaye (“spearhead”), from a word for a lance or javelin of Arabic origin,[2][5] but Barnhart notes that this French word is not recorded before 1546, too late to be the source.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To pierce or stab, and to slash a garment for ornament: before 1400, in the alliterative Morte Arthure;[8][2] Barnhart dates the participle jaggid to 1373,[5] and Etymonline the verb to about 1400.[6] The noun, an ornamental point cut in the edge of a garment, and the adjective jagged are first recorded in the Promptorium Parvulorum of about 1440, and the OED cannot tell whether the noun or the verb came first.[8][2]

Semantic evolution

The word began in late medieval dress: jags were the points or flaps cut along the edge of a garment, or slashes showing a different colour beneath, a fashion of the 14th and 15th centuries.[8][11][3] From 1555 a jag was also a shred of cloth, and in the plural rags, a sense now only dialectal.[8][13] The general sense of a sharp projection or tooth on an edge, as on a leaf or a rock, is recorded from 1578,[8] and the verb "to make ragged or uneven by cutting" from 1568.[8] The sense "to pierce, prick" is essentially northern and the only one known in Scots,[8] where a jag is a prick with something sharp (1818) and, since the 20th century, an injection or vaccination.[8][7][11] In Australia the verb also means to catch fish by impaling them on a bare hook.[7]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – verb, to pierce, stab; to slash a garment for ornament.[8][2]
  • c. 1440 – noun, an ornamental point cut in the edge of a garment.[8][2]
  • 1555 – a shred of cloth; in plural, rags.[8]
  • 1568 – verb, to make indentations in an edge; to make ragged.[8]
  • 1578 – a sharp projection or tooth on an edge or surface.[8]
  • 1818 – in Scots, a prick with something sharp.[8]
  • 1949 – chiefly Scottish, an injection.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sharp projection or point; a notch or barb.[4][7][8]
  2. (Scotland, informal) An injection: a flu jag.[7][8][11]
  3. (historical) A pointed flap cut along the edge of a garment, or a slash showing a different colour beneath, as in medieval and Renaissance dress.[4][3][11]

Verb

  1. To cut unevenly; to cut notches or teeth into an edge: The blunt saw jagged the plank.[7][4][3]
  2. (Scotland, informal) To give an injection to.[7]
  3. (Australia) To catch fish by impaling them on an unbaited hook.[7]
  4. (Scotland and dialect) To prick or jab.[4][3][8]

Word family

  • jagged
  • jaggy
  • jagless

jag2 spree, binge

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1597 The First Part of the Return from Parnassus

Etymology

The word for a load, and later for a spree, is of unknown origin.[8][3][5][4][11] Dictionary.com suggests that it was perhaps first a load of broom or furze, comparing Old English ceacga (“broom, furze”).[14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A load, usually a small cartload, of hay, wood and the like: 1597, in The First Part of the Return from Parnassus.[8][5][6]

Semantic evolution

From a load of hay the word passed to a load of drink: John Ray's collection of proverbs (1678) lists "He has a jagg or load" among phrases for a drunk man,[8][16][5] and this dialect sense came to mean a drinking bout.[8][11] A San Francisco newspaper of 1889 explained the new slang by the wood-carter's distinction: a full wagon was a "load", a part-load a "jag", so a man less than dead drunk had only a jag on.[16] In American English a jag was also a portion or quantity, a "lot", from 1834.[8][6] The extension to any bout of unrestrained activity or emotion, as in crying jag, is American: the OED and Barnhart find it first in Jack London's The Valley of the Moon (1913),[8][5] while Etymonline dates it to 1887.[6] In mining a jag was a train of trucks in a coal mine (1900), and a verb jag, to carry a load in a cart or on a pack-horse, is recorded from 1747.[8]

Timeline

  • 1597 – a small load of hay or wood.[8][5]
  • 1678 – as much drink as one can carry; a drinking bout.[8][16]
  • 1747 – verb, to carry in a cart or on a pack-horse.[8]
  • 1834 – in the US, a portion, a quantity.[8][6]
  • 1913 – a bout of indulgence in an activity or emotion, as in crying jag.[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bout of heavy drinking or drug use; a binge: They went on a three-day jag after the wedding.[4][3][11]
  2. A period of unrestrained indulgence in an activity or feeling; a spree: a crying jag, a talking jag.[4][3][11]
  3. (dialect and US) A small load, as of hay or wood; a portion or quantity.[4][3][11]

Word family

  • jagger

Usage notes

Jag with a capital, a Jaguar car, is a clipping of the make's name, recorded in Green's Dictionary of Slang from 1954 and in the OED from 1959.[16][8]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
Cite this entry

“Jag.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/jag. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·