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• lollygag •

Pronunciation: lah-li-gæg • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive

Meaning: (Humorous slang) 1. To dawdle, to mess around, to delay someone or something by moving slowly. 2. To mess around, to pet or neck in secret, away from prying eyes.

Notes: Remember to double up on the Gs when you add a suffix to today's silly word: they lollygagged an hour before starting to work; I can't take your lollygagging any more. I hope you aren't a lollygagger if you are thinking of sending me a suggestion for a better Good Word than this one.

In Play: You wouldn't want to use such a substandard slang word like lollygag in any kind of formal text or document, but it is a Good Word to use when you want to hurry someone up without offending them: "Suki, stop lollygagging and let's go. You can put your nails on when we get back!" The use of this silly word let's Suki know you are still in a good mood. In Britain, where a lolly is a lollipop (or loot from a crime) and gagging is choking, this quaint Americanism might evoke less amusement.

Word History: Today's word is compounded from loll "to lie about, relax" + gag "to trick, fool." Loll is still used in phrases such as loll about, doing nothing, taking it easy. The verb gag isn't used much these days but the noun gag is still lolling around, though its meaning has dimmed to simply "a joke". The original compound seems to have implied that the delaying tactics amount to some kind of tomfoolery but, if true originally, that implication lingers no longer. The meaning of gag has virtually vanished from today's word, as a matter of fact, so that lollygag and loll are near synonyms.

Lollygag -
What I wasn't doing in my absence from the Agora. (I had a minor podiatric operation that got infected, neccesitating emergancy surgery, a few days in hospital, and IV antibiotics.)

I have always loved this word. It has panache.


Perry Hopalong Dror

Good grief Perry, are you accident prone? If it isn't one end it's the other, hope you can find some several years worth of healthy lollygagging soon.

mark lollygagging-amongst-the-loblollys Bailey

Lollygag -
What I wasn't doing in my absence from the Agora. (I had a minor podiatric operation that got infected, neccesitating emergancy surgery, a few days in hospital, and IV antibiotics.)

I have always loved this word. It has panache.


Perry Hopalong Dror

Great Ceasar's Ghost! We'll not be having any more of that now.
(Panache... is that when everything hurts?)
Slainte, amigo.

I have always heard it pronounced "lallygag". Would that be a southern slang version, or just plain old incorrect?

Perry, oy very! Please take care of yourself, sir--unless you are using recoveries to be a paper-gowned Patch Adams, cheering up the other patients with your wit. PUNishing them into getting well, as it were...

That said, this word was a great favorite with my dad when assigning household chores.

-gailr

I have always heard it pronounced "lallygag". Would that be a southern slang version, or just plain old incorrect?

It's only incorrect if no one understands you.

mark lolly-gagging Bailey [which means something very different in 'Strine]

• lollygag •

...Word History: Today's word is compounded from loll "to lie about, relax" + gag "to trick, fool." Loll is still used in phrases such as loll about, doing nothing, taking it easy. The verb gag isn't used much these days but the noun gag is still lolling around, though its meaning has dimmed to simply "a joke". ...

Tell it to the Judge! When he issues a gag order, it's usually no laughing matter!



To tell the truth, I haven't heard the phrase "Gag me with a spoon" recently, but when something goes down the wrong pipe I can gag with the best of them, and I've been in many a meeting and teleconference when I wished I had been able to gag a speaker or two; but never anyone on this forum. On a previous forum, yes, but not here.

... I wished I had been able to gag a speaker or two; but never anyone on this forum. On a previous forum, yes, but not here.

Well, you heard him, y'all-- evidently we're not trying hard enough.

Judge: "If you don't answer the question, young man, we're going to have to gag you!"
Mudhead: "What question?"
Judge: "Gag 'im!"
-- Firesign Theatre, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, 1970

I have always heard it pronounced "lallygag". Would that be a southern slang version, or just plain old incorrect?

Where's Huny when we need a second opinion?

It's only incorrect if no one understands you.

mark lolly-gagging Bailey [which means something very different in 'Strine]

Please elabourate, mate!

What's a lollypop down under? It's a lolly.

mark gets-my-strine-from-a-writer's-newsletter Bailey

I wished I had been able to gag a speaker or two; but never anyone on this forum. On a previous forum, yes, but not here.

And who would that have been?

mark cur-ious Bailey

... I wished I had been able to gag a speaker or two; but never anyone on this forum. On a previous forum, yes, but not here.

Well, you heard him, y'all-- evidently we're not trying hard enough.

Right-o, so what'll it take?

mark can-get-really-egregious Bailey

Lived in the South all my life, albeit North Carolina. (I'll excuse the 4-year stint in Richmond as an excursion to the nether-regions, since if you wanted sweet tea you had to specifically ask for it, and there were some places that *gasp* didn't even serve it.)

Never heard it pronounced 'lallygag'...

-Tim

You had to specify sweet tea in the capitol of the Confederacy!? I'm shocked, shocked I say! (Really!) The South didn't just lose the war but must be losing the cultural war as well...

I've lived over half of my life in the South, and was raised by Southern parents from Southern families...never head "lallygag".