subs. (old cant).—1. A shop: spec. a mart for stolen goods. Whence a RUM-SWAG = ‘a shop full of rich goods’ (B. E.); and SWAG-BARROW = a coster’s cart. Hence (2) generic for property; spec. booty: see quots. 1785, 1819, and 1823. Also SWAG-CHOVEY BLOKE = a marine store dealer; SWAGSMAN = (1) a receiver of stolen goods, and (2) a miscellaneous dealer in ‘City penn’orths’ and other cheap stuff, wholesale or retail.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. SWAG, a bundle, parcel, or package; as a SWAG of SNOW, etc. The SWAG, is a term used in speaking of any booty you have lately obtained, be it of what kind it may, except money, as Where did you LUMBER THE SWAG? that is, where did you deposit the stolen property? To carry THE SWAG is to be the bearer of the stolen goods to a place of safety. A SWAG of any thing, signifies emphatically a great deal. To have knap’d a good SWAG, is to have got a good booty.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v. SWAG. Wearing-apparel, linen, piece-goods, &c., are all comprehended under the name of SWAG, when describing any speak lately made, &c., in order to distinguish them from plate, jewellery, or other more portable articles.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. SWAG (the)—store of money. ‘The SWAG lies up-stairs, in a chest of drawers.’ … RUM-SWAG—A good deal of it.
1827. CUNNINGHAM, Two Years in New South Wales, ii. 59. A number of the slang phrases current in St. Giles’s Greek bid fair to become legitimatized in the dictionary of this colony: plant, SWAG, pulling up, and other epithets of the Tom and Jerry school, are established—the dross passing here as genuine, even among all ranks.
1837. MUDIE, Felonry of New South Wales, 181. In short, having brought with her a supply of the SWAG, as the convicts call their ill-gotten cash, a wife seldom fails of having her husband assigned to her, in which case the transported felon finds himself his own master.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xix. ‘It’s all arranged about bringing off the SWAG, is it?’ asked the Jew. Sikes nodded.
1840. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ He said ‘he’d done me wery brown,’ and neatly ‘stow’d the SWAG.’
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii. 93. SWAGMEN who sell low-priced millinery.
1856. C. READE, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, xlvi. He will shake all that nonsense to blazes when he finds himself out under the moon with the SWAG on one side and the gallows on the other.
1861. H. KINGSLEY, Ravenshoe, xxxvii. If any enterprising burglar had taken it into his head to crack that particular crib known as the Bridge Hotel, and got clean off with the SWAG, he might have retired on the hard-earned fruits of a well-spent life into happier lands.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 121. The gentleman swore he’d been bested, And Sam had passed on the SWAG.
1900. FLYNT, Tramping with Tramps, 282. ‘It ain’t such a bad lot,’ he said; ‘I chew every day, get a big SWAG of booze once in a while.’
3. (Australian).—A tramp’s bundle in a BLUEY (q.v.); hence personal luggage; TRAPS (q.v.). As verb = to tramp the bush carrying a SWAG; SWAGMAN (SWAGGER or SWAGGIE) = a man travelling in search of work: cf. SUNDOWNER.
1853. S. SIDNEY, The Three Colonies of Australia, 361. His leathern overalls, his fancy stick, and his SWAG done up in mackintosh.
1861. T. M’COMBIE, Australian Sketches, 5. There was the solitary pedestrian, with the whole of his supplies, consisting of a blanket and other necessary articles, strapped across his shoulders—this load is called the ‘SWAG’ and the mode of travelling ‘SWAGGING it.’
1865. JNO. TUCKER, An Australian Story, in The Golden Spring, i. 86. The cumbrous weight of blankets that comprised my ‘SWAG.’
1873. A. TROLLOPE, Australia and New Zealand, i. 285. SWAG, which consists of his personal properties rolled up in a blanket.
1875. LADY BARKER, Station Amusements in New Zealand, 154. Describing the real SWAGGER, clad in flannel shirt, moleskin trowsers, and what were once thick boots.
1879. J. B. STEPHENS, Drought and Doctrine (Works, 309).
| Rememberin’ the needful, I gets up an’ quietly slips | |
| To the porch to see—a SWAGSMAN—with our bottle at his lips! |
1883. KEIGHLEY GOODCHILD, Who are You? 35, ‘The Old Felt Hat.’
| Fred gave a grin, then took a drink of tea … | |
| Such as the SWAGMEN in our goodly land | |
| Have with some humour named the ‘post and rail.’ |
1890. The Argus, 2 Aug., 4, 2. He strapped the whole lot together, SWAG-like. Ibid. (1896), 23 March, 5, 1. The minister’s house is the sure mark for every stone-broke SWAGGER in search of clothes or victuals.
1891. BOLDREWOOD, A Sydney-side Saxon, 156. We pulled up a SWAGMAN. He was walking very slow; he was a bit lame too. His SWAG wasn’t heavy, for he had only a rag of a blue blanket, a billy of water in his hand, and very little else.
1902. Pall Mall Gazette, 26 July, 2. 1. The unmarried shearer, roaming, SWAG on back, from station to station, chasing summer down the latitudes, leads an active, pleasant life enough.
