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^(key): /stæɡ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

Noun

stag (countable and uncountable, plural stags)

2. (countable) An adult male deer, especially a red deer.

   Synonyms: buck, hart

3. (countable, chiefly Scotland) A young horse (colt or filly).
4. (by extension, countable, obsolete) A romping girl; a tomboy.
5. (countable) An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox).
6. (countable, finance) An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
7. (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.
8. (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

9. (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.

10. (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.

11. (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.

12. (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.

13. (countable) The Eurasian wren, Troglodytes troglodytes.

Hyponyms

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• bull

Translations

Verb

stag (third-person singular simple present stags, present participle stagging, simple past and past participle stagged)

1. (intransitive, British) To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
2. (transitive) To watch; to dog, or keep track of.

   Synonym: shadow

Translations

Adverb

stag (not comparable)

1. 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

Further reading

• “stag”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “stag n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Anagrams

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

Middle English

Noun

stag

1. Alternative form of stagge

Swedish

Etymology

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

Noun

stag n

1. (nautical) a stay
2. an appliance with a function similar to a nautical stay

Declension

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