Forms: α. ? 2. accus. staggon, 4–7 stagge, (4 staghe), 6–8 stagg, 4– stag. β. 5–7 stage; also (sense 2 only) 6 north. staige, 7 staeg, 5– Sc. staig. [Prob. repr. OE. *stacga (stagga) wk. masc.; cf. various other names of animals, docga dog, frocga frog, *picga pig, wicga beetle. The word seems to have meant properly a male animal in its prime; cf. the various senses below and the cognate ON. steggi, stegg-r (Norw. stegg) male bird, mod. Icel. stegg-r tom-cat, formerly also male fox: see STEG sb.
There is no ground for the current statement that stag is of Scandinavian origin, though some of the senses below may be due to confusion with STEG.]
1. The male of a deer, esp. of the red deer; spec. a hart or male deer of the fifth year. (In the 15th c. † stag of a hart.)
α. c. 1185[?]. Pseudo-Cnut, Constit. de Foresta, xxiv. in Liebermann, Gesetze der Ags. (1903), I. 624 (Stowe MS., late 16th c.). Regalem feram, quam Angli a staggon [Camb. MS. c. 1570 Astaggon, Harrison 1577 staggon] appellant.
c. 1400. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), ii. Þe first yere þat thei [harts] be calfede, þei be ycalle a calfe þe secund yere a bulloke … þe thred yere a broket, þe iiii. yere a stagard, þe v. yere a stagge, þe vi. yere an herte of .x.
14[?]. Chaucer’s Sqr.’s T., heading of Part II. MSS. Petworth & Corpus, The Stag of an hert.
1473. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 98/2. Oure Graunte…, of a Tonne Wyne, and a Stagge of an Hert.
1576. Turberv., Venerie, xxii. (1908), 62. If you find together the footing of two stagges. Ibid., lxxix. 237. An Hart is called the firste yeare a Calfe … the fourth a Staggerd, the fifth a Stagge, and … the sixth … an Hart.
1584. Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 157. William Rufus was slaine by an Arrowe shot at a Stagge.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. 50. Thy gray-hounds are as swift As breathed Stags I fleeter then the Roe.
1613. Drayton, Poly-olb., XII. 523. Those fallow Deere, and huge-hancht Stags that graz’d Vpon her shaggy Heaths.
c. 1643. Ld. Herbert, Autobiog. (1824), 88. Forests and Chases which were well stored with wild Boar and Stag.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 469. The swift Stag from under ground Bore up his branching head.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 283. [The] stately Stag, that o’er the Woodland reigns.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 537. The tiger leagues not with the stag at bay Against the hunter.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, 23. Venison, or the flesh of the stag and roe, was more eaten.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VII. 23/2. The Red Deer or Stag … the largest of the British deer, is a native of the temperate regions of Europe and Northern Asia.
1908. Blackw. Mag., July, 105/2. A herd of fourteen reindeer was seen…. The horns of the entire band—for the hinds carry them as well as the stags—were still in velvet.
β. 1546. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 250. I must … ride to Tankerslay … & se a showt at a stage, as my keper hath sent me wourd.
c. 1550. Battle of Otterburn, iii. in Child, Ballads, III. 295/1. Vpon Grene Lynton they lyghted dowyn, Styrande many a stage [rhyme crage].
b. fig. Also in phrases † To go in stag: To go naked. † To make (a husband) a stag, to make to wear the stag’s crest = to cuckold. (Obs.)
1591. Florio, 2nd Fruites, 143. What dooth she make him weare the staggs crest then?
1602. Dekker, Satirom., F 3. No, come my little Cub, doe not scorne mee because I goe in Stag, in Buffe, heer’s veluet too.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. ii. Dap. Yes, but I’ld ha’ you Vse Mr Doctor, with some more respect. Fac. Hang him proud Stagg, with his broad veluet head.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 30. Paulina her first husband made a Stag.
c. In the names of various species of the genus Cervus, as Axis Stag, an Indian deer (C. axis), Carolina Stag, the North American Wapiti (C. canadensis); see also quot. 1896.
1859. Wood, Illustr. Nat. Hist., I. 693. The Wapiti or Carolina Stag.
1895. Outing, April, 4/2. An axis stag glanced across the nala.
1896. Lydekker, Brit. Mammals, 242. Of the allied species, we may mention by name the … Thian Shan Stag (C. eustephanus), the Kashmir Stag (C. cashmirianus) … and the Lhasa Stag (C. thoroldi).
d. The flesh of the stag; venison. rare–1.
1787. A. C. Borrer, Diaries & Corr. (1903), 71. He has given us twice Stag since I have been here.
e. The horn of the stag, as a material for handles of cutlery. Also attrib.
1876. Callis, Cutlery (Brit. Manuf. Industr.), 173. Scales of wood and composition, pressed to imitate stag and buffalo, have been introduced for common goods.
† f. transf. Flying stag, the STAG-BEETLE. Obs.
1658. Rowland, trans. Moufet’s Theat. Ins., I. xxi. 1005. The πλατύκερως, or Harts horn Beetle…. Some call it the Bull, others the flying Stag…. The French, Cerf volant; the English, Stag-fly, or Flying-fly.
2. north. and Sc. A young horse, esp. one unbroken.
α. 1318. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 373. In primis sunt … 2 stagges masculi, 1 pullanus masculus.
1346–7. in Finchale Priory Charters, etc. (Surtees), p. xxvi. Item unus staggus masculi unius anni. Ibid. (1363), p. lxi. ij staghes ætatis duorum annorum.
1439–40. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 409. Item 1 equa cum 1 stag ijor annorum.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxx. 227. Vnethes may I wag, man for wery in youre stabill Whiles I set my stag, man.
1483. Cath. Angl., 358/1. A sstagge, pullus.
1514. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 60. To Thomas, my sone, a stagge to make hym an horrse off.
1522. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), I. 106. To John Cowndon … a colt stagge. Ibid. (1565), 245. Item I gyue to thomas pereson my graye fillie stagg.
1684. Meriton, Praise Ale (1685), 105. A Stag is a young Colt.
1778. J. Mill, Diary (S.H.S., 1889), 55. [The losses of horses and cattle] were soon supplied by the purchase of three cows and two pretty young staggs.
1788. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh., II. 355. Stag; a young horse.
β. 1478. in Acta Audit. (1839), 82/1. For a meire & a staig xl s.
1540. N. C. Wills (Surtees), 170. To Mathew Hynde, xl s., a fely stage.
1558. in J. Croft, Excerpta Anat. (1797), 28. Item, a Bay Stoned Staige.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting w. Polwart, 395. Some [witches], on steid of a staig, ouer a starke monke straide.
1617. in Extracts Rec. Convent. Burghs Scot. (1878), III. 47. Ilk ox, kow, horse, stote, meir, staeg. Ibid. (1654), III. 388. Item, of ilk hors, meir or stage, going to the mercat, 1s.
1792. Burns, Kellyburn Braes, iv. It’s neither your stot nor your staig I shall crave … But gie me your wife, man.
1812. Chalmers, Lett., in Life (1851), I. 309. The staigs were returned to the globe.
Proverbs. 1857. J. Miller, Alcohol (1858), 123. Keep strong drink from the lad and the boy, ‘Corn is not for staigs.’
1899. J. Spence, Shetland Folk-Lore, 228. There’s aye watter whaar the staig smores.
3. An animal castrated when full grown. a. A bull; more fully bull stag. Now dial., Sc. and Australian.
α. 1680, 1776. Bull stag [see BULL sb.1 11].
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 284. A dairyman’s six heavy bull stags … broke over a well secured fence into my field of wheat.
1884. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Melb. Mem., xvii. 123. I just recollect that blue stag…. Was he in the mob you saw?
1886. W. Somerset Word-bk., Stag, a castrated bull. The term is applied to any animal emasculated after maturity.
1894. F. Remington, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 354/1. They require work-steers to do their ploughing, and Mr. Bell has brought up half a dozen vicious old ‘stags.’
β. 1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xiv. He returned … muttering that he thought he heard the ‘young staig loose in the byre.’ Ibid. (1822), Pirate, xxx. The air and bearing of a bull-dog, whilk I have seen loosed at a fair upon a mad staig.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 726/1. In Scot., Staig. Bull-staig is a castrated bull.
b. A boar, hog or ram. dial.
1784. [cf. stag-hog in 8 b].
1811. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 260. Boar stag, a castrated boar.
1851. Sternberg, Northampt. Gloss., Stag, an old boar.
1863. W. Barnes, Dorset Gloss., Stag, a castrated male animal; as, a ram-stag, a boar-stag, a bull-stag.
4. Applied to the male of various birds. (Cf. STEG.) a. A cock. dial. Also spec. in Cockfighting, a cock less than one year old.
1730. Cheny, Hist. List Horse-matches, etc. 168. Each side show’d some Cocks and some Staggs.
1758. [cf. stag-match in 9].
1770. Newcastle Chron., Advt., To be fought for … on the 31st of December, Fifty pounds by cocks and stags, 3lbs. 14oz.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLVI. 59. The practice of running stags with cocks is unavoidable.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, s.v., A young game cock—is a stag.
1886. Live Stock Jrnl., 23 July, 99/1. [Letter from Devonshire] Many people who keep hens for their eggs alone do not allow a stag with them.
1894. Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone, I. 96. Bramber learned that day that a cock in Devonshire is entitled stag.
1902. Lindsey & Lincolnsh. Star, 29 Nov., 5/2. Fowl stealing…. In one case a fine buff Orpington stag has been taken.
b. A turkey-cock of two years and upwards.
1819. W. & H. Rainbird, Agric. Suff. (1849), 300 (E.D.D.).
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Stag, a cock turkey, killed for the table in his second year.
1849. D. J. Browne, Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855), 165, note. When a cock turkey arrives at the age of two years, he is called a ‘stag.’
† c. A young swan. Obs. (Cf. STEG-swan.)
1544. Will R. North (Somerset Ho.). My Swanne marke wt all the Swannes Stagges & Signettes callid the Crowfote.
5. dial. The wren.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Stag, a wren.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 35. Wren (Troglodytes parvulus), Stag, Tope (Norfolk; Cornwall).
1893. in Cozens-Hardy, Broad Norfolk, 51, Stag, Common Wren.
6. slang. [Prob. from sense 1; but the reason for the use is obscure.] a. An informer; esp. in phrase to turn stag. Also see quot. 1725.
1725. New Canting Dict., Stag,… as, I spy a Stag, used by … Shepherd, lately executed, when he first saw the Turnkey of Newgate, who pursu’d and took him.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Stag, to turn stag, a rogue who impeaches his confederates.
a. 1826. J. Holt, Mem. (1838), II. 52. We had two disturbers of the harmony of the ship; I mean two stags or informers.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, I. viii. 217. As to clapping him in quod, he might prattle—might turn stag.
1846. J. Keegan, Leg. & Poems (1907), 367. My father … became a deserter, but he was not a coward, nor … a stag.
b. (See quots.)
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, s.v., Queer bail are ‘stag’: those men who being hired at a guinea or two per oath, to swear they are worth vast sums, stand about judges’ chambers in term-time.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 329. In the New York courts, a stag is the technical name for a man who is always ready to aid in proving an alibi, of course ‘for a consideration.’
c. (See quot. 1857.)
1857. Slang Dict., 20. Stag, shilling.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip, 15. You cannot bank a single stag.
7. Comm. slang. A person who applies for an allocation of shares in a joint-stock concern solely with a view to selling immediately at a profit.
1845. Thackeray, in Punch, IX. 191. All the Stags in Capel Court.
1846. Punch, X. 139. The bubble has in the mean time burst, the deposit is not paid, and the Stag … gives himself no more trouble about the scheme.
1857. Smiles, Stephenson, xxx. 408. Noble lords were pointed at as ‘stags’ … in the share markets.
1904. Westm. Gaz., 13 April, 9/1. Another point in the prospectus is the attempt to discriminate between the stag and the bona-fide investor.
b. (See quot.)
1854. H. Ayres, Fenn’s Eng. & For. Funds, 109. A Stag is one who is not a Member of the Stock Exchange, but deals outside, and is sometimes called an ‘Outsider.’
8. attrib. and Comb. a. similative, as stag-eyed, -necked, -sure adjs.
1826. Hood, Stag-Eyed Lady, 42. Therefore he chose a lady for his love, Singling from out the herd one stag-eyed dear.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., xl. 213. The stag-necked horse.
1896. N. Munro, Lost Pibroch, 69. Girls … not with a flat slouching foot on the soil, but high in the instep, bounding and stag-sure.
b. quasi-adj. (a) = male, as stag-bird, hartebeest, -hog, -moose, swan, -turkey. Also in sense 2, as stag-bay, -foal, -horse.
1606. N. Riding Rec. (1883), I. 55. Unum equum testiculatum, anglice a stoned *stags bay.
1886. W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v. Stag, When applied to poultry *stag-bird is the usual term for a male kept for breeding purposes.
1883. R. M. Fergusson, Rambling Sk. Far North, xv. 97. May a’ your mares be well to foal, An’ every ane be a *staig foal.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (ed. 2), I. 188. He had observed an old *stag hartebeest standing in the shade of some tall green bushes.
1784. Young, Ann. Agric., I. 124, in Britten, Old Country Words (1880), 110. *Stag-hog, a boar. Suff.
1857. Borrow, Romany Rye, I. xi. 166. I … goes into a field, suppose by night, where there is a very fine *stag horse.
1721. Dudley, Moose-Deer, in Phil. Trans., XXXI. 166. Our Hunters have found a Buck, or *Stagg-Moose, of fourteen Spans in heighth from the Withers.
1892. Tennyson, Church-Warden, vii. An’ ’e torn’d as red as a *stag-turkey’s wattles.
c. U.S. slang. = pertaining to or composed of males only, as stag-dance, devilry, -dinner, -party.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 330. *Stag-dance, a dance performed by males only, in bar-rooms, &c.
1873. Joaquin Miller, Life amongst the Modocs, viii. 94. In one of the saloons where men were wont to meet at night, have stag-dances, and drink lightning.
1911. H. S. Harrison, Queed, xv. 185. Buck Klinker, returning from some *stag devilry at the hour of two A.M.
1889. Thompson St. Poker Club, 59. Mr. Tooter Williams had been to a *stag dinner in the early evening.
1856. Knickerbocker Mag., April, 407 (Thornton, Amer. Gloss.). A party of old bricks [read bucks], who, under pretence of ‘looking at the picture,’ are keeping up a small *stag-party of their own at the end of the room.
9. Special comb.: stag-book Comm. slang, a book in which was entered the names of the stags or bogus shareholders (see 7); stag-cart = deer-cart, DEER 4 b; † stag-chase = stag-hunting; stag-evil, -fever (see quots.); † stag-fly, the stag-beetle; stag-hafted, -handled adjs., furnished with a haft or handle of stag-horn; stag-hog = BABIROUSSA; stag-hunt, the chasing of a stag as a sport; stag-hunter, one who hunts the stag; also, a horse used in stag-hunting; stag-hunting, the sport of chasing the stag; an instance of this; stag-like a., resembling a stag or that of a stag; † stag-match Cockfighting, a match for young cocks (see 4 a); † stag-skin, the prepared hide of a stag; † stag snake = ELAPS; † stag-worm (see quot.).
1854. Househ. Words, VIII. 470. You allotted to a great many stags, sir…. Didn’t you have any *stag-books when you allotted?
1894. Daily News, 8 Feb., 2/6. A *stag-cart of the Mid-Kent staghounds.
1725. Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), VI. 87. This [park] the Duke designed as the chief nursery for his *stag-chase.
1717. Solleysell, Compl. Horsem., *Stag’s Evil.
1759. Wallis, Farrier’s Dict., s.v. Convulsions, Solleysell calls this malady the stag’s evil, or palsy in the jaws.
1823. Pursglove, Pract. Farriery, 81. In convulsions, or stag evil, the horse appears full of spirit; raises his head; points his ears, and looks round with great anxiety.
1911. B. Holland, Life Dk. Devonshire, II. xxiv. 237. He is said to have suffered at critical moments of the sport from the excitement known as *stag fever.
1634. Moufet, Insect. Theatrum, II. xxi. 134. Anglis *Stag-flie.
1693. Dale, Pharmacol., 538. Scarabæus cornutus, Schrod.… The Stag-fly.
1797. J. Robinson’s Directory of Sheffield, 45. *Stag hafted penknife cutler.
1827. Griffith, trans. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., III. 332. The Babiroussa, or *Stag Hog.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, lii. There was a *stag-hunt on the lake.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xx. IV. 401. Without exposing himself to any risk greater than that of a staghunt at Fontainebleau.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4540/8. Stoln or strayed…, a … Bay Gelding,… hath been a known and constant *Stag-Hunter in the Forest of Sherwood for 2 or 3 Years past. Ibid. (1722), No. 6112/1. There was a general *Stag hunting.
1845. Youatt, Dog, iii. 86. Since the death of George III., who was much attached to this sport, stag-hunting has rapidly declined.
1627. May, Lucan, II. D 1 b. Along the hauens *stagge-like Hornes they runne Swiftly to shore.
1838. Lytton, Leila, I. i. The small erect head and stag-like throat.
1758. Lond. Chron., 29 June, 614/2. The *Stag Match between Sir Henry Grey, Bart., and Jennison Shafto, Esq.
1657. Thornley, trans. Longus’ Daphnis & Chloe (1893), 60. She gave him a new Scrip of *Stag-skin.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 32. Elaps … the *Stag-Snake.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., *Stag-worms,… a name given to a species of worms produced of the eggs of a fly, and lodged … behind, and under the palate of the stag.
b. In the names of plants: stag bush (see quot.); stag fern = staghorn fern (see STAGHORN 2 c); † stag’s garlic (see GARLIC 1 b).
1884. Sargent, Rep. Forests N. Amer., 94. Viburnum prunifolium … Black Haw. *Stag Bush.
1884. Missionary Chron., April, 102. Huge *stag ferns of fantastic shapes.
