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Origin and history of shag

shag(n.)

1590s, "cloth having a velvet nap on one side," perhaps ultimately from Old English sceacga "rough matted hair or wool," but the word seems to be missing in Middle English. The Old English word is from Proto-Germanic *skagjan (source also of Old Norse skegg, Swedish skägg "beard"), and perhaps related to Old High German scahho "promontory," Old Norse skagi "a cape, headland," with a connecting sense of "jutting out, projecting." Also compare shaw (n.).

The meaning "rough, matted hair, wool, or the like" is from c. 1600. Of a kind of strong tobacco cut in fine shreds, from 1789; of carpets, rugs, etc. made of cloth having a long nap, from 1946.

also from 1590s

shag(v.1)

"copulate with," 1788 (Grose), probably from obsolete verb shag (Middle English shoggen, shaggen, late 14c.) "to shake, waggle," which is of obscure origin but probably related to or an alteration of shake (v.):

And þe boot, amydde þe water, was shaggid. [Wycliffite sermon, c. 1425]

Compare shag (v.), used from 1610s in a sense "to roughen or make shaggy," from the noun shag. Also compare shake it in U.S. blues slang from 1920s, ostensibly with reference to dancing. It also was the name of a dance popular in U.S. in the 1930s and '40s. Related: Shagged; shagging.

also from 1788

shag(v.2)

in baseball, "to go after and catch" (fly balls), by 1913, of uncertain origin. Century Dictionary has this as a secondary sense of shag (v.) "to rove about as a stroller or beggar" (1851), which is perhaps from shack (n.) "disreputable fellow" (1680s), short for shake-rag, an old term for a beggar. But OED notes "it is not even certain that" the two verbs shag are the same.

also from 1913

Entries linking to shag

shake(v.)

Middle English shaken, from Old English sceacan "move (something) quickly to and fro, cause to move with quick vibrations; brandish; move the body or a part of it rapidly back and forth;" also "go, glide, hasten, flee, depart" (as in sceacdom "flight"); also intransitive, of persons or parts of the body, "to tremble" especially from fever, cold, fear (class VI strong verb; past tense scoc, past participle scacen).

This is reconstructed to be from Proto-Germanic *skakanan "to shake, swing," also "to escape" (source also of Old Norse, Swedish skaka, Danish skage "to shift, turn, veer"). There are said to be no certain cognates outside Germanic, but some sources suggest a PIE root *(s)keg- "to jump, to move" (compare Sanskrit khaj "to agitate, churn, stir about," Old Church Slavonic skoku "a leap, bound," Welsh ysgogi "move"). Also compare shock (n.1).

Of the ground in earthquakes, c. 1300. The meaning "seize and shake" (someone or something else) is from early 14c. From late 14c. in reference to mixing ingredients, etc., by shaking a container. The meaning "weaken, impair" in any respect is from late 14c. on the notion of "make unstable." The meaning "rid oneself of by abrupt twists" is from c. 1200; the modern colloquial use for "get rid of, cast off, abandon" (by 1872, American English) is likely a new extension on the notion of "throw off by a jolting or abrupt action," perhaps with horses in mind. The verb also was used in Middle English as "evade" responsibility, etc.

To shake hands "greet or salute by grasping one another's hands" dates from 1530s. Colloquial shake a (loose) leg "hurry up" is recorded by 1904; to shake a heel (sometimes foot) is an old or provincial way to say "dance" (1660s); to shake (one's) elbow (1620s) meant "to gamble at dice." In 16c.-18c. English, shake (one's) ears was "bestir oneself," an image of animal awakenings. The phrase more _____ than you can shake a stick at "more than you can count" is attested from 1818 (Lancaster, Pa., "Journal"), American English. To shake (one's) head "move one's head from side to side as a sign of disapproval" is recorded from c. 1300.

shaw(n.)

"strip of wood forming the border of a field," 1570s, a respelling of Middle English shau, shaue "wood, forest, grove, thicket," from Old English sceaga "copse," cognate with North Frisian skage "farthest edge of cultivated land," Old Norse skage "promontory," and perhaps with Old English sceaga "rough matted hair" (see shag (n.)). The Old English word also is the source of the surname Shaw (attested from late 12c.) in all its variations.