shag
/ˈʃæɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.02 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Bacon or fat, especially if with some remaining hair or bristles.
British usage; Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Nor ſhould it prove thy leſs important Care, / To chuſe a proper Coat for Winter's Wear. / [...] / True Witney Broad-cloath with it's Shag unſhorn, / Unpierc'd is in the laſting Tempeſt worn: [...]"
- "He was rather unshaven as well and smelt strongly of shag."
- "The Captain folded his brow into a look of intense perplexity. 'You seem exceedingly spry for a man who demolished an entire bottle of brandy and better part of an ounce of shag in a single evening.' 'And very nice too,' said the tramp. 'Now as to breakfast?'"
- "But it is a braw elemental sphere this o' ours, for here's a good queich o' claret for ye, an' a shag o' butter-an'-bread."
- "romancing Shelley between / sips of thermos tea and / yeasty shags of bread, sour-sweet, / from Lizzie Coutinho’s bakery."
- "There was that hair salon on Yonge Street called House of Lords. On a Saturday – nowadays you can't even imagine it – but imagine a hair salon having a lineup outside of people wanting to get a shag haircut."
Etymology
Etymology tree Old English sċeacga Middle English *schagge English shag From Middle English *schagge, from Old English sċeacga (“hair, wool”), from Proto-Germanic *skaggô, *skaggiją (“projection, bristly hair, stem”), *skag- (“to emerge, stick out, protrude”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek- (“to jump, move, hurry”). Akin to Old Norse skegg (“beard”) (compare Danish skæg, Norwegian skjegg, Swedish skägg). Related to shake and shock via the root.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈʃæɡ/
- British English: /ˈʃæɡ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
shags (plural)
shags (present, singular)
shagging (participle, present)
shagged (participle, past)
shagged (past)
more shag (comparative)
most shag (superlative)
shack (alternative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
raise someone's shag
shaggy-dog story
shag-rag
silk shag
like a shag on a rock
shag band
shag bandit
shag-hound