wag [ME] The sort of wagging done by dogs is from the Old English word wagian ‘to sway’, source also of waggle [L16th]. Wangle [L19th] is first recorded as printers’ slang. The origin is unknown but is perhaps based on waggle. Wag meaning ‘a joker’ is a different word, dating from the 16th century, which first meant ‘a mischievous boy or lively young man’, and was often used as a fond name for a child. Showing the grim gallows humour of the times, it probably comes from waghalter, ‘a person likely to be hanged’. In the 2006 World Cup a new meaning of wag suddenly became popular. The WAGs were the Wives and Girlfriends of the England players. The term is first recorded in 2002.