wag

Etymology

From Middle English waggen, probably from Old English wagian (“to wag, wave, shake”) with reinforcement from Old Norse vaga (“to wag, waddle”); both from Proto-Germanic *wagōną (“to wag”). Related to English way. The verb may be regarded as an iterative or emphatic form of waw (verb), which is often nearly synonymous; it was used, e.g., of a loose tooth. Parallel formations from the same root are the Old Norse vagga feminine, cradle (Swedish vagga, Danish vugge), Swedish vagga (“to rock a cradle”), Dutch wagen (“to move”), early modern German waggen (dialectal German wacken) to waver, totter. Compare waggle, verb

verb

1. To swing from side to side, as an animal's tail, or someone's head, to express disagreement or disbelief.
2. (UK, Australia, slang) To play truant from school.
   They had "wagged it" from school, as they termed it, which..meant truancy in all its forms. 1901, William Sylvester Walker, Blood, i. 13
   […] she wagged English and Science just to go in his car […] 2005, Arctic Monkeys, “Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts”, in I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
3. (intransitive, chiefly obsolete) To go; to proceed; to move; to progress.
4. To move continually, especially in gossip; said of the tongue.
   She's a real gossip: her tongue is always wagging.
5. (intransitive, obsolete) To leave; to depart.
   I will provoke him to 't, or let him wag. 1623, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

noun

1. An oscillating movement.
   The wag of my dog's tail expresses happiness.
2. A witty person.
   “A nice, juicy steak,” he is said to have called for, “French fries, apple pie and a cup of coffee.” It is probable that he really said “a coff of cuppee,” however, as he was a wag of the first water and loved a joke as well as the next king. 1922, Robert C. Benchley, chapter XXII, in Love Conquers All, Henry Holt & Company, page 111
   By Wednesday it had already won art-world notoriety, and on Saturday it achieved a public visibility that any artist would envy, after a self-promoting wag tore the banana off the wall and gobbled it up. 2019-12-08, Jason Farago, “A (Grudging) Defense of the $120,000 Banana”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   Many people can't work from home - as one wag observed: "Well, I would, but the wife doesn't like me laying tarmac in the front room!" December 2 2020, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 70