Dag
Pronunciation
- IPA: /dæɡ/
- Rhymes: -æɡ
Origin 1
From Old English dagge, of uncertain (probably Germanic) origin, cognate with (Middle) Dutch dag, dagge, dagh.
Origin 2
From daglock or daggle-lock.
Noun
dag
(plural dags)- A dangling lock of sheep’s wool matted with dung.
- WedgwoodDaglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.
- 1998, Wool: Volume 8, Issue 10, as published by the Massey Wool Association:He was one of the first significant private buyers of wool in New Zealand, playing a major part in bringing respectability to what at first was a very diverse group. He pioneered the pelletising of dag waste.
- 1999, G. C. Waghorn, N. G. Gregory, S. E. Todd, and R. Wesselink, Dags in sheep; a look at faeces and reasons for dag formation, published in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association 61, on pages 43–49:The development of dags first requires some faeces to adhere to wool, but this is only the initial step in accumulation.
- 2004, Mette Vaarst, Animal health and welfare in organic agriculture, page 323:... and the use of tanniferous forages may affect faecal consistency, reducing the formation of dag (faeces-coated wool).
- 2006, in the compilation of the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, volume 46, issues 1-5, published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia), on page 7:Researchers note that free pellets are characteristic of healthy sheep and that if sheep consistently produced free pellets, wool staining and dag formation would not occur.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Verb
- To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation.
- 2007, Graeme R. Quick, Remarkable Australian Farm Machines: Ingenuity on the Land,Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed.
- 2010 January 29, Emma Partridge, Stock Journal, Richie Foster a cut above the rest,After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money.
- To daggle or bemire.
Origin 3
From Old French dague (from Old Provencal dague, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca ("Dacian knife"), from the Roman province Dacia (roughly modern Romania); the ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix, as in poignard 'dagger'); cognate with dagger.
Noun
dag
(plural dags)- A skewer.
- A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
- (obsolete) A dagger; a poniard.
- (obsolete) A kind of large pistol.
- FoxeThe Spaniards discharged their dags, and hurt some.
- GroseA sort of pistol, called dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts.
- The unbranched antler of a young deer.
Verb
Origin 4
Variation of dang
Interjection
- (US, informal) Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.
Origin 5
Back-formation from {{3}}
Noun
dag
(plural dags)- (Australia slang, New Zealand derogatory slang) One who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance.
- 2004 July 25, Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly Magazine, All the World's a Stage,Now, wide-eyed and unfashionably excited ("I’m such a dag!" she remarks several times), she has the leading role of Viola in the Bell Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night, opening on August 10 at the Victorian Arts Centre Playhouse.
- 2006 September 26, TV Week, Klancie Keough eliminated,What did you think about Mark calling you a dag?To me a dag is a person who doesn't have a lot of pride in their appearance or the way they present themselves — the way they sing and how they hold themselves basically. But it didn't really bother me. He said, "You're such a dag, you're cool." I took it as "you're a laidback person". The way they cut it and edited it made it sound on TV like I was grumpy about it, but I wasn't. It was pretty funny how it came across.
- 2009 November 14, Daily Telegraph (Australia), Catherine Zeta - Hollywood's biggest dag?,SHE is one of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies and has access to any fashion designers, so then why is Catherine Zeta-Jones dressing like a bag lady?
- 2010 January 15, Michael Dwyer, The Age, Talented dag plucks up the cool,A graduate of film studies in New York, May has had a hand in editing two of his three videos. Each casts him as a bespectacled dag in a world of glamour.
Related terms
- daggy (adj)
Usage notes
May be used as form of endearment, perhaps with the intention of indicating fellowship or sympathy with regard to apparent rejection of societal norms.
Origin 6
Initialism for directed acyclic graph.
Noun
dag
(plural dags)- (graph theory) A directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair such that
Origin 7
Of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish dagg. See dew.