SCALAWAG

[Dr. Goodword]

• scalawag •

Pronunciation: skæ-lê-wæg • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. (Offensive) A white Southerner who supported the Reconstruction after the Civil War. 2. (Slang) A reprobate, an untrustworthy person. 3. (Slang) A mischievous person, a jokester, a practical joker.

Notes: Scalawag is a playful lexical toy today, but it started its life as a serious slur against Southerners who sided with the Federal Government (sound familiar?) after the Civil War. Since it was slang, it was seldom written, so we still have trouble with its spelling. American dictionaries already accept scallawag, scalliwag, and scallywag, since the last two pronunciations are common. We believe our spelling above is the preferred one today.

In Play: Emerging from the Deep South, today's Good Word came north designating real bad guys: "Back in '09 (aught-nine) the scalawags on Wall Street almost sent us into another Depression." Today, however, it is a playful word we can even pin on kids: "Come back here, you little scalawag, and clean up your room before you go out to play!"

Word History: This purely American lexical concoction emerged after the Civil War in the US as a slur against those who stooped to helping the Federal Government's attempts at reconstructing the South. No one knows where it originated, but most speculation focuses on Scotland. A farm servant in Scotland was once called a scallag. Also one of the Shetland Islands, home of the famous shaggy ponies, is known as Scalloway. Our word could have resulted from the merging of these two words. However, it looks and feels like a compound of scala and wag "a jokester". English has several pejorative words beginning with SC, like scoundrel and scandal that might have combined with wag to give the same result. (Today's Good Word came from that wag of a scalawag Bill Guy, whom we now thank graciously.)

[Slava]

I may well be alone here, but I tend to think of this word as a gently loving term, as in #3 above, than a term of abuse. Obviously it's changing over the years, but the way I see this word being used is more along the lines of: "Yeah, he's a jerk, but the scalawag turns out to be really a good guy, once you know him."

Can a female be a scalawag, by the way? It doesn't feel right somehow. Wouldn't she be a hoyden? Or do you feel scalawag is not gender specific?

[Stargzer]

Well, given the gender bias inherent in post-Bellum America, I'm sure it applied only to men. Scallawags were the Southern fellow-travellers of Northern Carpet Baggers, who came from the North will all their possessions in a "carpet bag," a suitcase made from an old carpet, in an attempt to make their fortune by using the newly-emancipated slaves to control the political and economic structure of South.

Another Goodword I like is rapscallion (which I think I suggested on a site long ago and far away, The Site Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned Here).

[saparris]

According to etymology.com, scalawag predates the Civil War.

scalawag
"disreputable fellow," 1848, Amer.Eng., originally in trade union jargon, of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Scottish scallag "farm servant, rustic" (by influence of wag "habitual joker"). An early recorded sense was "undersized or worthless animal" (1854), which suggests an alteration of Scalloway, one of the Shetland Islands, in allusion to little Shetland ponies. In U.S. history, used from 1862 of anti-Confederate native white Southerners.

Also, I wonder who gave Southern anti-Confederates the name in the first place. Surely we Southerners didn't think up a name that long!