stag
Meanings
noun
- An adult male deer, especially a red deer and especially one in high adulthood versus a young adult.
- A young horse (colt or filly).
- A male turkey: a turkeycock.
- A romping girl; a tomboy.
- An improperly or late castrated bull or ram – also called a bull seg (see note under ox).
- An outside irregular dealer in stocks, who is not a member of the exchange.
- 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.
- An unmarried man; a bachelor; a man not accompanying a woman at a social event.
- 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.
- An informer.
- Guard duty.
- A stag beetle (family Lucanidae).
verb
- To act as a "stag", an irregular dealer in stocks.
- To watch; to dog, or keep track of.
adv
- Of a man, attending a formal social function without a date.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English stagge, steg, from Old English stagga, stacga (“a stag”) and possibly 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”). Doublet of steg (“gander”). Cognate with Icelandic steggi, steggur (“tomcat, male fox”). Related to staggard, staggon.
Synonyms
Related words
Derived words
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.