[Ads-l] ADswag or s-w-a-g?

[James A. Landau]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-george-rr-martins-fire-blood-book-excerpt-1160897

_Memoirs of James hardy Vaux, Written by Himself_  London: 1819

starting on page 153 is a glossary of "flash language" (criminal argot)
page 216 "SWAG, a bundle, parcel, or package; as a swag of snow, &c.  The swag, is a term used in speaking of any booty you have lately obtained, be it of what kind it may, except money, as Where did you lumber the swag? that is, where did you deposit the stolen property?  To carry the swag is to be the bearer of the stolen goods to a place of safety.  A swag of any thing, signifies emphatically a great deal.  To have knap'd a good swag, is to have got a good booty.


page 207 SNOW, clean linen from the washerwoman's hands, whether it be wet or day

This is the result of a ten-second search on Google Books; earlier usages of swag as "booty" may exist

Off-topic: SWAG is an acronym for "Scientific Wild-Assed Guess"

- Jim Landau

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org