Etymograph

English

sag

Sag comes from Middle English saggen.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500saggen1
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606sag1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English sag
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “The mind I sway by, and the heart I…”.

Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500saggenWiktionary, English sag
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606sagWiktionary, English sag. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “The mind I sway by, and the heart I…”

The story

From earlier sag, sagg, sack, from Middle English saggen, probably from Middle Low German sacken (‘to sink, drift’), ultimately of North Germanic/Scandinavian/Old Norse origin, akin to Old Norse søkkva (‘to sink’), a denasalized derivative of Proto-Germanic *sankwijaną (‘to cause to sink’), related to Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną (‘to sink’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Middle English saggen

Today it means

noun The state of sinking or bending; a droop.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sag”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English saggen / sag

Shirt and support for this word