swagger

English

WOTD – 29 September 2009

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈswæɡ.ə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈswæɡ.ɚ/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡə(r)

Etymology 1

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

• PUCK: What hempen homespuns have we swaggering here?

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.
   • (Can we date this quote by Beaconsfield and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     a man who swaggers about London clubs

2. To boast or brag noisily; to be ostentatiously proud or vainglorious; to bluster; to bully.
   • (Can we date this quote by Collier and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

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

Derived terms

• swaggerer
• swaggeringly

Translations

to walk with a swaying motion

• Finnish: keinahdella (fi)
• French: rouler des épaules
• German: stolzieren (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: λαπίζω (lapízō)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: pavoneggiarsi
• Maori: whakatāmaramara, tāmaramara
• Russian: расхаживать с важным видом (rasxaživatʹ s važnym vidom)

to act in a pompous manner

• Finnish: rehvastella (fi), ylvästellä (fi), herrastella
• French: se pavaner (fr), plastronner (fr), rouler des mécaniques (fr)
• German: großtun (de), schwadronieren (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: pavoneggiarsi, gloriarsi (it), millantarsi
• Persian: فیریدن (fa) (firidan)
• Russian: ва́жничать (ru) impf (vážničatʹ)

to boast or brag noisily

• Finnish: rehennellä (fi), rehvastella (fi)
• French: se vanter (fr), fanfaronner (fr), (colloquial) se la péter (fr), (vulgar) péter plus haut que son cul (fr), (informal) faire le beau (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: angeben (de), prahlen (de), aufschneiden (de)
• Maori: whakapehapeha

Noun

swagger (countable and uncountable, plural swaggers)

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

     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.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     He 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, and would let that cripple of a steamboat get the upper hand of him in a minute.

3. A prideful boasting or bragging.

Translations

confidence, pride

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: rehvakkuus (fi)
• French: fierté (fr) f
• German: Selbstbewusstsein (de) n, Stolz (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

bold or arrogant strut

• Finnish: rehvastelija (fi), rehentelijä (fi)
• French: prétentieux (fr), rouleur de mécaniques (fr), outrecuidant (fr)
• Galician: altivez (gl), altiveza (gl), arrogancia (gl), fachenda (gl), petulancia (gl), soberbia (gl)
• German: Stolzieren n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: boria (it) f, spavalderia f
• Portuguese: marra (pt) f
• Spanish: pavoneo (es) m
• Turkish: öz güven (tr)

prideful boasting or bragging

• Finnish: rehvastelu (fi), rehentely (fi), öykkäröinti (fi)
• French: hâblerie (fr) f, fanfaronnade (fr) f, plastronnade (fr) f, gasconnade (fr) f, vantardise (fr) f
• German: Angeberei (de) f, Prahlerei (de) f, Großtuerei f
• Portuguese: bravata (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: fanfaronadă (ro) f, lăudăroșenie (ro) f, gasconadă f
• Spanish: fanfarroneo (es) m
• Turkish: afi (tr), caka (tr), çalım (tr), fiyaka (tr), gösteriş (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Kurdish:
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Adjective

swagger (comparative more swagger, superlative most swagger)

1. (slang, archaic) Fashionable; trendy.
   • (Can we date this quote by Robert Barr and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     It is to be a very swagger affair, with notables from every part of Europe, and they seem determined that no one connected with a newspaper shall be admitted.

   • (Can we date this quote by Ernest Rutherford and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Mrs J.J. [Thomson] looked very well and was dressed very swagger and made a very fine hostess.

Etymology 2

Noun

swagger (plural swaggers)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, historical) Synonym of swagman
   • 2017, Fiona Farrell, Decline and Fall on Savage Street, →ISBN, page 66:

     She looked down in her half-dreaming state and thought they might be swaggers. There were lots of them that year, camped out on the riverbank netting for whitebait, then fanning out around the streets selling their catch door to door.

Anagrams

• waggers