# Shag, Shagging, Shagged

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 16, 1999, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048 "1999-06-16T23:14:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 1999, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048/1 "1999-06-16T23:14:00Z")

</div>

Alright, I saw a little of this word on the forum but of the 490 dictionaries at [www.onelook.com](http://www.onelook.com), there is no reference to it ever being a sexual word. I’m still confused about this word since a woman called me one day and asked me if I wanted to come over and get ‘shagged.’ I asked her what that word meant and she asked me if I saw The Spy Who Loved Me. Some people I asked said that it definitely points to sex.

Yet, they would never get away having a US film with a word for ‘fuck’ in the title.

Here is what OneLook has to say it means [shagging]:  
shag, shagging – (a lively dance step consisting of hopping on each foot in turn)

```
social dancing -- (dancing as part of a social occasion)
jitterbug -- (a jerky American dance that was popular in the 1940s)
lindy, lindy hop -- (an energetic American dance that was popular in the 1930s (probably
named for the aviator Charles Lindbergh))
fandango -- (a provocative Spanish courtship dance in triple time; performed by a man and
a woman playing castanets)
flamenco, gypsy dancing -- (a style of dancing characteristic of the Andalusian gypsies;
vigorous and rhythmic with clapping and stamping of feet)
gavotte -- (an old formal French dance in quadruple time)
shag, shagging -- (a lively dance step consisting of hopping on each foot in turn)
stomp -- (a dance involving a rhythmical stamping step)
tarantella, tarantelle -- (a lively whirling Italian dance for two persons)
ballroom dancing, ballroom dance -- (any of a variety of social dances performed by
couples in a ballroom)
folk dancing, folk dance -- (a style of dancing that originated among ordinary people (not in
the royal courts))

```

So, do tell, how does it get around to meaning something sexual [Other than saying dancing is a vertical expression of a horiontal idea]?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 1999, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048/2 "1999-06-16T23:41:00Z")

</div>

According to USA Today:

> [@](#):
>
> _The Encarta World English Dictionary_ is adding “shag” to its new edition. Popularized worldwide by the _Austin Powers_ films, “shag” is a British transitive verb defined as “an offensive term referring to sexual intercourse (slang taboo). Late 18th century. Origin unknown.”

* * *

“I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way…”  
–Jessica Rabbit, **Who Framed Roger Rabbit**

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 1999, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048/3 "1999-06-16T23:45:00Z")

</div>

From the American - British & British - American Dictionary:

> [@](#):
>
> **shag** v. – screw, fuck, “shag off”

* * *

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  
– Henry David Thoreau

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 1999, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shag-shagging-shagged/1048/4 "1999-06-17T01:17:00Z")

</div>

From the Oxford Canadian Dictionary:

> [@](#):
>
> **shag** (2) /shaeg/ _v. & n. coarse slang. v.tr._ ( **shagged, shagging** ) have sexual intercourse with. [snipped]