sag

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English saggen,^[2][3][4][5] of uncertain origin.^[6] The OED, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English connect it with borrowed from Middle Low German sacken (“to settle, subside”) and Dutch zakken,^[6][7][8][2] and Etymonline says the Low German verb was used of dregs settling in wine.^[5][9] Others take it as probably of Scandinavian origin,^{[4][3][10][11]} comparing Swedish sacka (“to settle, sink down”), Danish sakke (“to lag behind”) and Norwegian dialect sakka (“to subside”).^{[6][3][9][10]} The OED notes that the Dutch, Low German and Swedish forms have no explanation as native words, while the Norwegian dialect form may be related to Old Norse søkkva (“to sink”); it suggests that the word was originally West Scandinavian and passed, perhaps as a nautical term, into Swedish, Dutch and Low German, and perhaps through Low German into English.^[6][12][13] Klein and Etymonline explain these verbs as forms without the nasal of Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną (“to sink”), the source of sink,^[10][5] though Skeat thought a link with sink unlikely.^[14] Partridge thought it perhaps ultimately echoic.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

To hang down unevenly, of the side of a wound, in a medical text that the Middle English Dictionary dates to 1392 in a copy of about 1475;^[2] Barnhart dates saggen to 1392,^[16][9] and Etymonline to the late 14th century.^[5] The OED's first record, to sink gradually under weight, is from the Castle of Perseverance of about 1425, where mankind is "soylyd and saggyd in synne".^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The first meanings were "to sink, be mired" and "to hang down unevenly".^[2][5] From 1526 it was used of parts of the body that droop, and by 1592 of garments hanging unevenly.^[6][5] The figurative sense of declining to a lower level, through lack of strength or effort, is recorded from 1508,^[6] and in commerce, of prices, from 1870.^[6] In nautical use a ship sagged to leeward when it drifted off course (1633), and the noun first meant this tendency to drift (1580).^[6][5][13] The modern sense of bending down in the middle under weight, as a rope, beam or plank does, is recorded from 1777.^[6][5] In American English a sag was a sunken piece of ground from 1727, and since 1861 the noun was also used of the dip in a wire or cable.^[5][6] Johnson (1755) gave the verb two entries, "to load, burden" and "to hang heavy", quoting Macbeth.^[17] In dialect it also meant to decline in health or show signs of age,^[6][18] and in American tramps' slang of the 1920s and 1930s to beat with a club, with sag for a police club.^[19] Since the 1990s, in African-American slang, to sag has been to wear one's trousers hanging low.^[19]

Timeline

• 1392 – to hang down unevenly.^[2][9]
• c. 1425 – to sink or subside gradually under weight.^[6][2]
• 1508 – figurative, to decline through lack of strength or effort.^[6]
• 1526 – of a part of the body, to droop.^[6][5]
• 1580 – noun, in nautical use, a movement or tendency to leeward.^[6][5][3]
• 1592 – of a garment, to hang unevenly.^[6]
• 1633 – of a ship, to drift out of its course.^[6]
• 1727 – noun, a sunken place in the ground, in American English.^[6][5]
• 1777 – to bend down in the middle from its own weight.^[6][5]
• 1861 – noun, the dip of a rope or wire supported at two points.^[6][5]
• 1870 – of prices, to decline.^[6]
• 1891 – noun, a decline in price or in business.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sink or settle gradually below the normal level, especially in the middle, under weight or pressure: The shelf sagged under the encyclopedias.^[3][11][6]
2. To hang down loosely or unevenly; to droop.^[11][6]
3. To lose strength, vigour or intensity; to flag: Their enthusiasm sagged after the second defeat.^[3][11]
4. Of prices or values, to fall or decline.^[11][3][6]
5. (nautical) Of a ship, to drift to leeward.^[6][3]
6. To cause something to sag.^[11][6]

Noun

1. The act or an instance of sagging; a drooping or sinking: a sag in sales.^[11][3]
2. A drop or depression below the surrounding level, as in a road or a stretch of land.^[3][6]
3. The dip of a rope, wire or cable hanging between two supports.^[3][6]
4. (nautical) A tendency to drift, as of a ship to leeward; also, the downward bending of a vessel's keel in the middle.^[3][11][6]
5. A temporary decline in prices or business.^[6][7]

Word family

• antisag
• sagger
• saggy
• sag wagon

Related words

• sink

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b 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 k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
16. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com