English
shag
Shag comes from Old English sċeacga ‘hair, wool’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *skaggô.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skaggô‘projection, bristly hair, stem’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeacga‘hair, wool’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*schaggereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1596shag
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skaggô‘projection, bristly hair, stem’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sċeacga‘hair, wool’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500*schaggereconstructed
- Englishearliest quotation 1596shag
Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser, Book V, Canto IX: “And long curld locks that downe his shoulders shag”.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek- ‘to jump, move, hurry’
Another origin of shag
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schaggen
- Englishtodayshag
Perhaps a byform of Middle English schokken (‘to shake; move rapidly’), related to Middle Low German schokken (‘to shake; tremble’). Alternatively, perhaps ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *skakkōn (‘to shake’), specifically continuing a post-Proto-Germanic variant *skagg-, where the non-singular stem *skag- caused the analogical replacement of the stem-final voiceless geminate consonants with voiced geminates, which was then leveled throughout the paradigm.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.
Today it means
noun Matted material; rough massed hair, fibres etc.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skaggô / shag