# stag
## English
### Alternative forms

* steg (dialectal), staig (Scotland), stagg, stagge (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga (“a stag”) and Old Norse steggi, steggr (“a male animal”), both from Proto-Germanic *staggijô, *staggijaz (“male, male deer, porcupine”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *stegʰ-, *stengʰ- (“to sting; rod, blade; sharp, stiff”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur (“tomcat, male fox”). Related to staggard, staggon.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /stæɡ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -æɡ

### Noun

stag (countable and uncountable, plural stags)
* (countable) An adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult.
    Synonyms: buck, hart (sometimes hypernymous)
    Coordinate term: knobber (sometimes hyponymous)
* (countable, chiefly Scotland) A young horse (colt or filly).
* (British) A male turkey: a turkeycock.
* (by extension, countable, obsolete) A romping girl; a tomboy.
* (countable) An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox).
* (countable, finance) An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
* (countable, finance) One who applies for the allotment of shares in new projects, with a view to sell immediately at a premium, and not to hold the stock.
* (countable, usually attributive) An unmarried man; a bachelor; a man not accompanying a woman at a social event.
    a stag dance; a stag party; a stag bar
* (countable) A social event for men held in honor of a groom on the eve of his wedding, attended by male friends of the groom; sometimes a fundraiser.
    Synonyms: (US) bachelor party, (UK) stag do, stag party, stag lunch
    Coordinate terms: bachelorette party, hen party
    The stag will be held in the hotel's ballroom.
* (countable, slang) An informer.
** 1838,, edited by T. Crofton Croker, Memoirs of Joseph Holt, General of the Irish Rebels, in 1798, volume II, London: Henry Colburn, page 52:We had two disturbers of the harmony of the ship; I mean two stags or informers, one named Robert Wilson, the other John Hewit, from the north of Ireland.
* (uncountable, UK, military, slang) Guard duty.
** 2000, Richard Tomlinson, The big breach: from top secret to maximum security, page 31:Between shifts on stag or manning the radio, we grabbed a few hours sleep.
** 2012, Max Benitz, Six Months Without Sundays: The Scots Guards in Afghanistan:Three days were spent on standby or patrols and a fourth day on guard, with at least eight hours on stag.
* (countable) A stag beetle (family Lucanidae).
** 2007, Eric R. Eaton, Kenn Kaufman, Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, page 132:Members of the genus Pasimachus […] can be confused with stag beetles […] but stags have elbowed antennae.
* (countable) The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.

#### Hyponyms

* (male red deer): royal stag, imperial stag, monarch

#### Derived terms

* bull stag
* fag stag
* hog stag
* Kashmir stag
* stag beetle
* stag-beetle
* stag do
* stag-evil
* stag film
* stag hog
* stag moose
* stag night
* stag party
* stag weekend

#### Related terms

* bull

#### Translations
### Verb

stag (third-person singular simple present stags, present participle stagging, simple past and past participle stagged)
* (intransitive, British) To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
* (transitive) To watch; to dog, or keep track of.
    Synonym: shadow

#### Translations
### Adverb

stag (not comparable)
* Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date.
    My brother went stag to prom because he couldn't find a date.

#### Translations
### References

* (to watch): John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary (1873)

### Further reading

* “stag”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “stag n.$^1$”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

### Anagrams

* ATGs, GATS, GTAs, Gast, TAGs, gast, gats, tags

## Middle English
### Noun

stag
* Alternative form of stagge

## Old English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /stɑːɡ/, [stɑːɣ]

### Verb

stāg
* first/third-person singular preterite indicative of stīgan

## Swedish
### Etymology

Inherited from Old Swedish stag, from Old Norse stag, from Proto-Germanic *stagą.

### Noun

stag n
* (nautical) a stay
* an appliance with a function similar to a nautical stay

#### Declension

| | | nominative | genitive |
| singular | indefinite | stag | stags |
| singular | definite | staget | stagets |
| plural | indefinite | stag | stags |
| plural | definite | stagen | stagens |

### References

* stag in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* stag in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* stag in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
* stag in Svenskt nautiskt lexikon (1920)
* stag in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

### Anagrams

* gast, sagt, tags