or scallawag, subs. (American).—(1) Anything low class; and spec. (2) as in quot. 1891. As adj. = wastrel; shrunken; profligate: cf. CARPET-BAGGER.
1855. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Nature and Human Nature, I. iv. You good-for-nothin’ young SCALLOWAG.
1870. Melbourne Argus. A new term has been added to the descriptive slang of the loafing classes of Melbourne. Vagrants are now denominated SCALAWAGS.
1877. North American Review, July, 5. [The carpet-baggers] combining with a few SCALAWAGS and some leading Negroes to serve as decoys for the rest … became the strongest body of thieves that ever pillaged a people.
1884. Chambers’s Journal, 1 March, 139, 1. [Colorado man loquitur.] We are here to discuss the existence of thieves and SCALLAWAGS amongst us.
1891. Century Dictionary, s.v. SCALAWAG. Used in the Southern States, during the Reconstruction period (1865–76) in an almost specific sense, being opprobriously applied by the opponents of the Republican party to native Southerners who acted with that party, as distinguished from Carpet-bagger, a Republican of Northern origin.
