WAG

See also: wag and wäg

Translingual

Symbol

WAG

1. (international standards) Indeterminately reserved ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Gambia.

   Synonym: GMB (for general use)

Usage notes

This is an indeterminately reserved code, included as part of ISO 3166-1 due to its use in designating road vehicles under the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic, and is not endorsed for general use by the ISO. The general-purpose code for the Gambia is GMB.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wæɡ/
• Rhymes: -æɡ

Etymology 1

Back-formation from WAGs (“wives and girlfriends”), mid-2000s.

Noun

WAG (plural WAGs)

1. (informal, originally UK, Ireland) A wife or girlfriend of a sports star or other celebrity, originally and especially of an association football player.
   • 2006 July 2, Lucy Rock, “Bitchiness: It's not just a girl thing”, in The Observer‎^[1], page 20:

     The World Cup WAGs are a good example of this. The younger girls, nicknamed the ‘hen-night crowd’ and led by Colleen McLoughlin, dance on tables and drink until the early hours while No. 1 WAG Victoria Beckham remains aloof, dining sedately with Ashley Cole’s fiancee, Cheryl Tweedy.

   • 2006 July 4, Emma Cowing, The Scotsman:

     In Wimbledon, the tennis WAGs and - just as excitingly - HABs (Husbands and Boyfriends) have been appearing courtside, enthusiastically cheering on their beloved other halves with a degree of style.

   • 2023 August 30, Jessica Testa, “The Most Famous Woman in Men’s Tennis”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     They looked her up online and soon began following Ms. Riddle on social media, where she shares her life as a tennis WAG — an acronym for “wives and girlfriends,” popularized in Britain in the mid-2000s to describe, disparagingly, a group of preening, partying women attached to soccer players.

   • 2025 July 2, Yola Mzizi, “With All Eyes on Them, a ‘WAG’ Style Emerges”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     WAGs have taken on a second life in the American sports world, linked to basketball, football and, more recently, Formula 1 and tennis.

Etymology 2

Acronyms.

Noun

WAG (plural WAGs)

1. (informal, business or military slang, US) Acronym of wild-assed guess; a rough estimate.
2. (sports, gymnastics) Acronym of women's artistic gymnastics.

References

• Tony Thorne (2014), “WAG”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London;  […]: Bloomsbury

Anagrams

• AGW, AWG, GWA, Gaw, WGA, gaw