wag 'carry/lug/haul'

[Wilson Gray]

Damn, Mark! I've been meaning to submit this word, myself! I've known
it my whole life. But, since I have no documentation for it and I've
been raked over the coals for submitting stuff that only I knew about,
I kept putting it off.
In any case, I definitely have your back on this one! Among black [I
hate to have to keep specifying the speaker's race, but those who are
old enough remember the really bad old days, when merely being in the
presence of a white person, male or female, with the wrong expression
on his face could cost a black man his ass] women in East Texas, it
pretty much replaces "tote," which is guy-talk. A man _totes_ , whereas
a woman _wags_ a load of groceries home, _wags_ a child in her arms,
_wags_ a bag of laundry on her back, etc. I can't swear that women
didn't also use "tote," but I can say that males didn't/don't? use
"wag" with the meaning of "bear, carry, tote," etc.

Your friend may be using quotes because "wag" is chick-talk. Probably
not, but wouldn't it be far out if that was the case?!

-Wilson Gray

On Nov 15, 2004, at 11:36 AM, Mark A. Mandel wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      wag 'carry/lug/haul'
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> A friend from, I think, North Carolina, uses the verb "wag" in a way
> I've
> never seen before and can't find in OED or Merriam-Webster. She puts
> it in
> scare quotes, suggesting that she considers it a slang or dialect
> usage. It
> occurs to me (as a WAG :-)) that it could be a back formation from
> "wagon".
>
> Note that she uses the verb twice in this paragraph, scare-quoted only
> the
> first time.
>
>> I was thinking about asking you about the parking situation at your
>> house.
>> I can fly, but I'd rather drive.  If you have parking space at your
>> house,
>> I could leave my car there and then "wag" my stuff via the
>> trolley/subway
>> to your house.  The cost to park at the hotel is outrageous.  Now if
>> Mark
>> could come and meet us to wag our stuff on occasion, especially at
>> the end
>> of convention, that would be wonderful!!!
>
>
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
> [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>