dag

Etymology 1

From Middle English dagge, of uncertain (probably Germanic) origin, cognate with (Middle) Dutch dag, dagge, dagh. The sense "dangling lock of wool, matted with dung" (originally from the dialect of Kent) is also termed "daglock" (derived from the "hanging end" sense of "dag") or "daggle-lock" and some sources consider the sense a shortening of that longer word rather than a mere evolution of the "hanging end" sense.

noun

1. A hanging end or shred, in particular a long pointed strip of cloth at the edge of a piece of clothing, or one of a row of decorative strips of cloth that may ornament a tent, booth or fairground.
2. A dangling lock of sheep’s wool matted with dung.
   To see the dunged folds of dag-tayled sheepe. 1597-98 1597–8, Joseph_Hall_(bishop) Joseph Hall Satires, Book 5, number 1
   1859-1865, Hensleigh Wedgwood, A Dictionary of English Etymology Daglocks, clotted locks hanging in dags or jags at a sheep's tail.
   He was one of the first significant private buyers of wool in New Zealand, playing a major part in bringing respectability to what at first was a very diverse group. He pioneered the pelletising of dag waste. 1998, Wool: Volume 8, Issue 10, as published by the Massey Wool Association
   The development of dags first requires some faeces to adhere to wool, but this is only the initial step in accumulation. 1999, G. C. Waghorn, N. G. Gregory, S. E. Todd, and R. Wesselink, Dags in sheep; a look at faeces and reasons for dag formation, published in the Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association 61, on pages 43–49
   … and the use of tanniferous forages may affect faecal consistency, reducing the formation of dag (faeces-coated wool). 2004, Mette Vaarst, Animal health and welfare in organic agriculture, page 323
   [Researchers] note that free pellets are characteristic of healthy sheep and that if sheep consistently produced free pellets, wool staining and dag formation would not occur. 2006, in the compilation of the Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, volume 46, issues 1-5, published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Australia), on page 7

verb

1. To shear the hindquarters of a sheep in order to remove dags or prevent their formation.
   Blade shearers could shear, crutch, mules or dag sheep anywhere they were needed. 2007, Graeme R. Quick, Remarkable Australian Farm Machines: Ingenuity on the Land
   After learning how to crutch at 13, he could dag 400 sheep in a day by the spring of 1965 and earned himself more than just a bit of pocket money. January 29 2010, Emma Partridge, “Richie Foster a cut above the rest”, in Stock Journal
2. (obsolete, or dialectal) To sully; to make dirty; to bemire.
   Vexing the baths with his dagg'd rout. a. 1661, B. Holyday, Juvenal's Satires

Etymology 2

From Old French dague (from Old Occitan dague, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *daca (“Dacian knife”), from the Roman province Dacia (roughly modern Romania); the ending is possibly the faintly pejorative -ard suffix, as in poignard (“dagger”)); cognate with dagger.

noun

1. A skewer.
2. A spit, a sharpened rod used for roasting food over a fire.
3. (obsolete) A dagger; a poniard.
   Even when my dag was levelled at his heart 1515, Thomas Kyd, Arden of Feversham
   Soon after this, however, there were brought into the country these old-time dags, useful weapons which rendered far easier the labors of men and of women. These were employed for many years, but later the company sent in an improved knife, more useful for skinning and for the other purposes of camp life, but not nearly so good for war. May 6, 1899, “Old Hudson's Bay Dag”, in Forest and Stream, volume 52, number 18, page 347
   When we reached the poop-stairs an officer in a blue coat came forward jabbering some jargon; but the captain would have no parley with him, but flung his dag clean into the man's face, and over he went backwards— with his damned high heels in the air. 1904, Robert Hugh Benson, By what Authority?, page 400
4. (obsolete) A kind of large pistol.
   Powder! No, Sir; my dag shall be my dagger. 1630, Thomas Dekker, The Whore of Babylon
   A sort of pistol, called a dag, was used about the same time as hand guns and harquebuts. 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons
5. The unbranched antler of a young deer.

verb

1. (transitive) To skewer food, for roasting over a fire
2. (transitive) To cut or slash the edge of a garment into dags

Etymology 3

Variation of dang.

intj

1. (US, informal) Expressing shock, awe or surprise; used as a general intensifier.
   Dag, yo. 2 December 2002, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Teen Girl Squad Issue #1”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad as What's Her Face (Matthew Chapman)

Etymology 4

Perhaps a back-formation from daggy, or, a specialised sense of British dialect dag, a daring feat amongst boys.

noun

1. (Australia slang, derogatory) One who dresses unfashionably or without apparent care about appearance; someone who is not cool; a dweeb or nerd.
   2004 July 25, Debbie Kruger, Melbourne Weekly Magazine, All the World's a Stage, Now, wide-eyed and unfashionably excited ("I’m such a dag!" she remarks several times), she has the leading role of Viola in the Bell Shakespeare Company’s production of Twelfth Night, opening on August 10 at the Victorian Arts Centre Playhouse.
   What did you think about Mark calling you a dag? To me a dag is a person who doesn't have a lot of pride in their appearance or the way they present themselves — the way they sing and how they hold themselves basically. But it didn't really bother me. He said, "You're such a dag, you're cool." I took it as "you're a laidback person". The way they cut it and edited it made it sound on TV like I was grumpy about it, but I wasn't. It was pretty funny how it came across. September 26 2006, “Klancie Keough eliminated”, in TV Week
   SHE is one of Hollywood's most beautiful leading ladies and has access to any fashion designers, so then why is Catherine Zeta-Jones dressing like a bag lady? November 14 2009, “Catherine Zeta - Hollywood's biggest dag?”, in Daily Telegraph
   A graduate of film studies in New York, May has had a hand in editing two of his three videos. Each casts him as a bespectacled dag in a world of glamour. January 15 2010, Michael Dwyer, “Talented dag plucks up the cool”, in The Age
2. (Australia slang, New Zealand, obsolete) An odd or eccentric person; someone who is a bit strange but amusingly so.

Etymology 5

Initialism for directed acyclic graph.

noun

1. (graph theory) A directed acyclic graph; an ordered pair (V,E) such that E is a subset of some partial ordering relation on V.

Etymology 6

Of North Germanic origin; compare Swedish dagg. Doublet of dew.

noun

1. A misty shower; dew.

verb

1. (UK, dialect) To be misty; to drizzle.

Etymology 7

noun

1. (chiefly Ireland) Pronunciation spelling of dog.
   Mickey: Dags! D' ya like dags? 2000, Guy Ritchie, Snatch, quoted in, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global, Routledge →ISBN, page 68
   There it was again, that old Gaelic verb pronounced 'scriss,' that those involved in fighting talk apparently exuded on occasion. It could have been 'D'ya wanna buy a dag?' it was all the same. 2014, John P Brady, Back to the Gaff, Roadside Fiction, page 131