It’s also the origin of the American swag lamp sense you mention, in which the lamp’s electrical cable hangs in a swag. Another sense of swag I haven’t yet mentioned comes from the same idea - for an ornamental festoon, or for fabric fastened so it hangs in a drooping curve this was first recorded at the end of the eighteenth century. At first, the verb meant to rock unsteadily or lurch, but evolved into that of hanging loosely or heavily, to sag. It looks as though all these can be traced back to a word imported into Middle English from Scandinavian svagga, to sway (in fact, it’s the origin of sway as well). And, of course, among other meanings, swag is also the Australian word for a bundle of personal belongings, especially a bedroll, carried by a traveller, tramp, or swagman. The idea of give-aways is more recent, but even that has a longer history than one might guess from the comparatively recent American usage you quote. It has been around for at least 200 years for a thief’s plunder or booty, the sense that C S Lewis was using.
Would you have any insight into the origins of this word?Ī Swag has a surprising number of meanings. Today however, I saw it again in a book written by C S Lewis in 1958: ‘Some young hooligans.had already sold the swag, and some had previous convictions against them’.
I thought it was a relatively new use for a word that previously described a type of lamp.
MYDICTIONARY SWAG FREE
Q From Daryl Sawatzky: Today the word swag is used by radio announcers to describe free advertising products and prize give-aways.
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