swagger

Etymology

A frequentative form of swag (“to sway”), first attested in 1590, in A Midsummer Night's Dream III.i.79:^[1]

• PUCK: What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈswæɡ.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈswæɡ.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -æɡə(r)

Verb

swagger (third-person singular simple present swaggers, present participle swaggering, simple past and past participle swaggered)

1. To walk with a swaying motion; hence, to walk and act in a pompous, consequential manner.
   • Beaconsfield

     a man who swaggers about London clubs

2. To boast or brag noisily; to be ostentatiously proud or vainglorious; to bluster; to bully.
   • Collier

     To be great is not […] to swagger at our footmen.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonathan Swift to this entry?)

Noun

swagger (plural swaggers)

1. Confidence, pride.
   • 2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport‎:

     After spending so much of the season looking upwards, the swashbuckling style and swagger of early season Spurs was replaced by uncertainty and frustration against a Norwich side who had the quality and verve to take advantage

2. A bold or arrogant strut.
   • Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

     [The helmsman] steered with no end of a swagger while you were by; but if he lost sight of you, he became instantly the prey of an abject funk […]

3. A prideful boasting or bragging.
4. (Australia, historical) Synonym of swagman

References

Anagrams

• waggers