swag

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English swagge (“a bag, sack”),^[2][3] perhaps of Scandinavian origin: the MED and the OED compare the Norwegian dialect word svagg (“a big strong person”).^[2][3][4] Most later senses come from the verb, recorded from about 1527,^[3][5][6] which is probably Scandinavian too: compare Norwegian dialect svagga and svaga (“to sway”),^[3][5][7][8] and Old Norse sveggja (“to swing, sway”),^[4][6][7] akin to Old English swingan (“to swing”).^[6][4] The American Heritage Dictionary calls the word probably Scandinavian.^[9] The sense of bold self-confidence is a clipping of swagger,^[3][10] itself from the verb.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bulging bag: in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne (1303), where a witch makes "a bely of lethyr, a grete swagge".^[3][2] This sense is recorded only in Middle English.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb, first to make something sway or sag (about 1527) and then to sway heavily or unsteadily (1530, in Palsgrave), gave the noun "a swaying or lurching movement" in 1660;^[3][4] swag-bellied in Shakespeare's Othello (1604) implies the sense of hanging heavily.^[4] The decorative festoon of flowers or drapery is recorded from the 1790s;^[3][6][4] Etymonline notes that it may be a separate development from the verb.^[6] In criminals' cant swag was a shop from the 17th century,^[3][10] and a thief's booty from 1794;^[3][6] Barnhart first finds the booty sense in Vaux's flash dictionary of 1812.^[4] Weekley thought the old sense "bulging bag" lay behind both the burglar's swag and the Australian bushman's bundle.^[11] According to the Australian National Dictionary Centre, the word passed in Australia from the thief's goods to the possessions carried by a traveller in the bush (OED from 1853), the source of swagman.^[12][3] In 19th-century English slang it also meant cheap trifling goods, sold at a swag-shop.^[6][3] The sense of free promotional goods is recorded from 1961,^[3] and the clipped swag "swagger, self-assurance" from 2002, in hip-hop slang.^[3][10] In dialects across Scotland, England, America and Australia the verb meant to sway from side to side or to hang down heavily.^[13]

Timeline

• 1303 – a bulging bag (Middle English only).^[3][2]
• c. 1527 – verb, to make something sway or sag.^[3]
• 1530 – verb, to sway heavily or unsteadily.^[3][4][7]
• 1588 – a big blustering fellow (obsolete by 1764).^[3][4]
• 1630 – verb, to sag, hang heavily.^[3] Barnhart dates this sense to 1621.^[4]
• 1660 – a swaying or lurching movement.^[3][4]
• 1676 – in thieves' cant, a shop.^[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it in 1665.^[10]
• 1794 – a thief's booty.^[3]
• 1795 – an ornamental festoon of flowers or foliage.^[3] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1794.^[4][6]
• 1853 – in Australia and New Zealand, a bush traveller's bundle of belongings.^[3]
• 1861 – verb, to swag it, to travel with a swag.^[3]
• 1961 – free promotional goods.^[3]
• 2002 – bold self-assurance, from swagger.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Money or goods taken by a thief; booty or loot: The burglars buried the swag in a field.^{[14][7][15][3]}
2. (informal) Goods or valuables in general.^[14][7]
3. (informal) Free items given away for promotional purposes, as at an event.^[3]
4. An ornamental festoon of flowers, fruit or foliage, or a curtain or drapery hung in a drooping curve; also a carved or moulded representation of this.^{[14][15][16][3]}
5. (Australia and New Zealand) The bundle of personal belongings carried by a traveller in the bush, a swagman.^{[14][15][3][17][18]}
6. (Australia) A great quantity: a swag of medals.^[17][3]
7. A swaying or lurching movement.^[14][3]
8. (dialect) A hollow in the ground that fills with water, especially one caused by mining subsidence.^[14][3]
9. (slang) Bold self-confidence of manner or style; swagger.^[14][3][10]
10. (obsolete, Middle English only) A bulging bag.^[3][5][2]

Verb

1. To sway heavily or unsteadily; to lurch.^[7][15][3]
2. To hang heavily; to sag.^[7][3][17]
3. (Australia and New Zealand) To travel about carrying a swag, also in the phrase to swag it.^[15][3][17]
4. To arrange curtains or fabric in swags.^[17][5]

Word family

• swagger
• swagman
• swaggie

Related words

• sway
• swing
• swig

Usage notes

In American campus slang SWAG is also an acronym for a wild guess written as an answer to a test or homework question.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Australian National Dictionary Centre, Meanings and Origins of Australian Words and Idioms, https://andc.anu.edu.au
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. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d e Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
18. ^ The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers