different between mosey vs swagger

English

Alternative forms

• mosy, mozey, mozy

Etymology

Unknown. Originally attested in Southern US dialects. Suggested origins include:

• Spanish vamos (compare vamoose)
• British dialectal mose about (“walk around stupidly”)
• an Algonquian term for "walk" (compare Ojibwe bimose (“she or he walks along”))

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?mo?.zi/

Verb

mosey (third-person singular simple present moseys, present participle moseying, simple past and past participle moseyed)

1. (chiefly US, dialectal) To set off, get going; to start a journey.
   • 1910, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Kilmeny of the Orchard, chapter 1:

     Haven't got time. I must mosey up to the North End to see a man who has got a lovely throat. Nobody can find out what is the matter. He has puzzled all the doctors.

2. (chiefly US, dialectal) To go off quickly: to hurry up.
3. (chiefly US, dialectal) To amble; to walk or proceed in a leisurely manner.
   • 1919, William MacLeod Raine, A Man Four-Square, chapter 6:

     We'll mosey along toward the river. Kinder take it easy an' drift the herd down slow so as to let the cattle put on flesh.

Translations

Usage notes

• Associated especially with the dialect of the Old West.

Anagrams

• Moyes, Moyse

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?swæ?.?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?swæ?.?/
• Rhymes: -æ??(r)

Etymology 1

A frequentative form of swag (“to sway”), first attested in 1590, in A Midsummer Night's Dream III.i.79:

• PUCK: What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

Verb

swagger (third-person singular simple present swaggers, present participle swaggering, simple past and past participle swaggered)

1. To behave (especially to walk or carry oneself) in a pompous, superior manner.
   • 1845, Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil

     a man who swaggers about London clubs

2. To boast or brag noisily; to bluster; to bully.
   • 1698, Jeremy Collier, A Moral Essay upon Pride

     To be great is not […] to swagger at our footmen.

   • 1724, Jonathan Swift, The Drapier’s Letters, Dublin and London, 1730, Letter 1, p. 14,^[1]

     For the common Soldier when he goes to the Market or Ale-house will offer this Money, and if it be refused, perhaps he will SWAGGER and HECTOR, and Threaten to Beat the BUTCHER or Ale-Wife, or take the Goods by Force, and throw them the bad HALF-PENCE.
3. To walk with a swaying motion.

Derived terms

• swaggerer
• swaggeringly
• swagger it
• aswagger

Translations

Noun

swagger (countable and uncountable, plural swaggers)

1. Confidence, pride.
2. A bold or arrogant strut.
3. A prideful boasting or bragging.

Translations

Adjective

swagger (comparative more swagger, superlative most swagger)

1. (slang, archaic) Fashionable; trendy.
   • 1899, Robert Barr, Jennie Baxter, Journalist

     It is to be a very swagger affair, with notables from every part of Europe, and they seem determined that no one connected with a newspaper shall be admitted.

   • 15 March, 1896, Ernest Rutherford, letter to Mary Newton

     Mrs J.J. [Thomson] looked very well and was dressed very swagger and made a very fine hostess.

   • 1908, Baroness Orczy, The Old Man in the Corner

     Mrs. Morton was well known for her Americanisms, her swagger dinner parties, and beautiful Paris gowns.

Etymology 2

Noun

swagger (plural swaggers)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, historical) Synonym of swagman

References

Anagrams

• waggers