different between swag vs spag

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

From Middle English *swaggen, swagen, swoggen, probably from Old Norse sveggja (“to swing, sway”). Compare dialectal Norwegian svaga (“to sway, swing, stagger”).

Verb

swag (third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) sway.

   Synonyms: sway, lurch
2. (intransitive) To droop; to sag.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir H. Wotton to this entry?)

   • 1530, John Palsgrave, L'esclarcissement de la langue francoyse

     I swagge as a fatte persos belly swaggeth as he goth.

3. (transitive) To decorate (something) with loops of draped fabric.
4. (transitive) To install (a ceiling fan or light fixture) by means of a long cord running from the ceiling to an outlet, and suspended by hooks or similar.
   • 1991, Kalton C. Lahue, Cheryl Smith, Interior Lighting (page 19)

     Hooks come with screws for use in plaster or wood and toggles for use in wallboard. One hook should be sufficient to swag a lamp from a ceiling outlet.

Noun

swag (plural swags)

1. (window coverings) A loop of draped fabric.
   • 2005, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 438:

     He looked in bewilderment at number 24, the final house with its regalia of stucco swags and bows.

2. A low point or depression in land; especially, a place where water collects.
   • 1902, D. G. Simmons, "The Influence of Contaminated Water in the Development of Diseases", The American Practitioner and News, 34: 182.

     Whenever the muddy water would accumulate in the swag the water from the well in question would become muddy […] After the water in the swag had all disappeared through the sink-hole the well water would again become clear.

Derived terms

• swagger

Etymology 2

Clipping of swagger. A common pseudo-etymology is the derivation as acronym for “secretly we are gay”, or other unlikely phrases.

Noun

swag (uncountable)

1. (slang) Style; fashionable appearance or manner.
   • 2009, Mark Anthony Archer, Exile, page 119

     Now this dude got swag, and he was pushing up on me but, it wasn't like we was kicking it or anything!

Derived terms

• swag it out

Etymology 3

From 18th c. British thieves' slang.

Noun

swag (plural swags)

1. (obsolete, thieves' cant) A shop and its goods; any quantity of goods. [18th c.]

   Synonym: stock

2. (thieves' cant, uncountable) Stolen goods; the booty of a burglar or thief; boodle. [18th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:booty

   • 1838, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 19:

     “It?s all arranged about bringing off the swag, is it?” asked the Jew. Sikes nodded.

   • 1971 November 22, Frank E. Emerson, “They Can Get It For You BETTER Than Wholesale”, New York Magazine, page 38

     He was on his way to call on other dealers to check out their swag and to see if he could trade away some of his leftover odds and ends.

4. (uncountable) Handouts, freebies, or giveaways, such as those handed out at conventions. [late 20th c.]
5. (countable, Australia, dated) The possessions of a bushman or itinerant worker, tied up in a blanket and carried over the shoulder, sometimes attached to a stick.
6. (countable, Australia, by extension) A small single-person tent, usually foldable into an integral backpack.
7. (countable, Australia, New Zealand) A large quantity (of something).
   • 2010 August 31, "Hockey: Black Sticks lose World Cup opener", The New Zealand Herald:

     New Zealand wasted a swag of chances to lose their opening women?s hockey World Cup match.

Derived terms

• swagful, swagless
• (shop): rum swag, swag barrow
• (stolen goods): swag bag, swag chovey bloke, swagsman (“fence”)
• (itinerant's belongings): swagman

Verb

swag (third-person singular simple present swags, present participle swagging, simple past and past participle swagged)

1. (Australia, transitive, intransitive) To travel on foot carrying a swag (possessions tied in a blanket). [From 1850s.]
   • 1880, James Coutts Crawford, Recollections of Travel in New Zealand and Australia, page 259,

     He told me that times had been bad at Invercargill, and that he had started for fresh pastures, had worked his passage up as mate in a small craft from the south, and, arriving in Port Underwood, had swagged his calico tent over the hill, and was now living in it, pitched in the manuka scrub.

   • 1976, Pembroke Arts Club, The Anglo-Welsh Review, page 158,

     That such a man was swagging in the Victoria Bush at the age of fifty-one requires explanation.

   • 2006, Inga Clendinnen, The History Question: Who Owns the Past?, Quarterly Essay, Issue 23, page 3,

     The plot is straightforward. A swagman is settling down by a billabong after a hard day?s swagging.

   • 2011, Penelope Debelle, Red Silk: The Life of Elliott Johnston QC, page 21,

     Over the Christmas of 1939, just three months after Britain and Australia had declared war on Germany, they went swagging together for a week and slept out under the stars in the Adelaide Hills, talking, walking and reading.

2. To transport stolen goods.

Derived terms

• swaggie
• swagman
• swag it

Translations

Etymology 4

Noun

swag (plural swags)

1. Alternative letter-case form of SWAG; a wild guess or ballpark estimate.

   I can take a swag at the answer, but it may not be right.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• AWGs, GWAS, WAGs, wags

Old Frisian

Etymology

From a word referring to the fence around a pasture; cf. Old Norse sveigr (“supple branch, headkerchief”), ultimately from a root meaning to bend or twist.

Noun

sw?g f

1. pasture

Descendants

• Dutch: Zwaag
• Frisian: sweach, swaech

Further reading

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010) , “zwaag”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

English

Etymology

Clipping of spaghetti.

Noun

spag (uncountable)

1. (informal) spaghetti

Related terms

• spag bol

Anagrams

• A-GPS, AGPs, GPAs, PASG, gaps, gasp

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [spa?]

Noun

spag (nominative plural spags)

1. spark

Declension