shag

Definitions

noun a sexual act or a sexual partner. See the verb form for origins.
noun a term of endearment in use among London financial traders in 2000, probably from earlier public-school usage
verb to depart, leave. The 1990s use of the term, which may be related to earlier uses of the word to denote a fast jitterbug-style dance or later a reluctant, shuffling walk, also occurs in the phrase ‘shag off/out’. By the 18th century shag had
come
to mean ‘move quickly’ in American speech.

Shag originally meant ‘rough untidy hair’, a sense now

familiar

in its derivative shaggy (16^th c.). Related Old Norse forms

such

as skegg ‘beard’, skagi ‘promontory’, and skaga ‘project’

suggest

that

its underlying meaning is ‘something that sticks out’. The bird-name shag,

which

denotes a relative of the

cormorant

and was

first

recorded in the 16th century, may be an allusion to the bird’s shaggy

crest

. The origins of the

verb

shag ‘copulate with’, which dates

from

the late 18th century, are not known, although it may be distantly related to shake.

2 definitions in context