Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers"

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 21:12:59 -0400, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Peter Duncanson wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:46:42 +0100, Robin Bignall
>> <docrobin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >The use of "shag" as a verb in "The Cold Six Thousand" was one of the
>> >book's puzzling features. In the sentence "Pete shagged a jeep"
>> >(yes, 'jeep' not 'sheep') and others like it, context showed that
>> >"shagged" apparently meant something like (mis)appropriated, which is
>> >a meaning that I have never heard before. It could also have meant
>> >"stole", "borrowed", "hired" or any other word that means "acquired",
>> >for all I know.
>>
>> That sounds like an author's creative variation of "snag" -- to
>> obtain.

I've also heard it as "Can I shag a cigarette?" meaning "Will you give
me one of yours."
>
>There's an AmE slang sense of "shag" meaning 'to chase and bring back',
>primarily in baseball usage (outfielders practice by "shagging" fly
>balls). MWCD11 dates this sense to 1896.

Also in golf. When I spent summers caddying, we shagged balls for
golfers. Country clubs had driving ranges, but instead of jeeps with
cages to retrieve the balls, caddies stood out in the field and
retrieved them. The members furnished their own golf balls which were
kept in a shag bag.


--
Tony Cooper
Orlando FL
.

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