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scallawag

 - 3 dictionary results

scal⋅la⋅wag

  [skal-uh-wag]
Use scallawag in a Sentence
–noun Chiefly British.
scalawag.

scal⋅a⋅wag

  [skal-uh-wag]
–noun
1. a scamp; rascal.
2. U.S. History. a native white Southerner who collaborated with the occupying forces during Reconstruction, often for personal gain.
Also, scallywag; especially British, scallawag.

Origin:
1840–50, Americanism; orig. uncert.

Related forms:
scal⋅a⋅wag⋅ger⋅y, noun
scal⋅a⋅wag⋅gy, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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