wag – English noun declension

English noun forms of wag

Noun: wag
Singularwag
Pluralwags

Sample Sentences

  • The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.
  • Was not my Lord
  • The veryer Wag o'th' two? [c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:]
  • But being a bit of a wag, and relishing a good joke amazingly, he concluded to have a little fun, and at the same time learn his friend a lesson concerning his negligent custom. [1855 July 1, anonymous author, The Judge's Big Shirt, Yankee-notions, →ISSN:]
  • “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king. [1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111:]
  • By Wednesday it had already won art-world notoriety, and on Saturday it achieved a public visibility that any artist would envy, after a self-promoting wag tore the banana off the wall and gobbled it up. [2019 December 8, Jason Farago, “A (Grudging) Defense of the $120,000 Banana”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:]
  • Many people can't work from home - as one wag observed: "Well, I would, but the wife doesn't like me laying tarmac in the front room!" [2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 70:]

Etymology

1. From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way.
2. The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are the Old Norse vagga feminine, cradle (Swedish vagga, Danish vugge), Swedish vagga (“to rock a cradle”), vugge (“to rock a cradle”), Dutch wagen (“to move”), early modern German waggen (dialectal German wacken) to waver, totter. Compare waggle, verb See: Old English Nouns 'wagian', Old Norse Nouns 'vaga', English Nouns 'way'.