Forum Terminology

[+Phone guy]

I have been reading the forums and I still don't get something. There are things like SWAG, what is that and some of the other abbreviations?

Edited June 2, 2004 by Phone guy

[+Renegade Knight]

SWAG in these forums is trading fodder.

 

at work it's a Scientific Wild a** Guess.

[+Phone guy]

right right but what does SWAG stand for? Is it a made up word? why not just say "Trade item"?

[+Imajika]

Swag: trade items

 

Some people say it is an acronym for Stuff We All Get.

 

It's just a slang term we use for trade items. Easier to type swag, instead of "trade items"

 

Edited June 2, 2004 by Imajika

[+Phone guy]

seems a little strange to me. Why not simply "TRADE"?

[blocko1000]

Yea the letters dont form an acronym as far as I know. I first started hearing the word on the radio. Stations holding a live remote with stuff to give away would say they were going to be giving out some swag there.

[+Phone guy]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

[+Phone guy]

Don't they call that ebonics?

[+Imajika]

Swag predates ebonics:

 

swag (v.) - 1530, probably from O.N. sveggja "to swing, sway," cognate with O.E. swingan "to swing" (see swing). The noun sense of "ornamental festoon" is first found 1794. Earlier senses of "bulky bag" (1303) and "big, blustering fellow" (1588) may represent separate borrowings from the Scand. source.

 

In Australia, swag is a term used for a pack carried on your back. Perhaps the term we know today came from this usage of the word (ie - items carried in a swag bag...simply shortened to swag).

 

Etymology lesson concluded. We now continue with our normal forums.

[+Renegade Knight]

seems a little strange to me. Why not simply "TRADE"?

Trade is what you do with Swag.

 

You could invent your own word and it might even stick.

[+Renegade Knight]

Do'n be dissn da cache wit bad swag.

 

My eubonics sucks.

[+Phone guy]

ok ok,

I looked it up in Random House. Other than the obvious (A thing you hang on a curtin rod), it is a slang word for plunder or booty.

I just cant get my self to say "did you see the BOOTY that other Cacher had?"...

Well I guess it would depend on the Cacher.

[+bons]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=swag

 

Swag n. (slang): loot.

 

Swag meaning loot definately predates geocaching. It was a term I knew long before I heard the word "geocaching".

[+Phone guy]

Well I wont be putting any gumf in my caches. (rubbish)

[+KoosKoos]

And for those of us that have hit trade shows, SWAG = Stuff We All Get...ie, the marketing type giveaways that you get when you visit booths.

[+Phone guy]

British slang.

[+robert]

seems a little strange to me. Why not simply "TRADE"?

why not "trash" instead of "gumf"?

 

 

edit: added link to other thread on "gumf".

Edited June 2, 2004 by robert

[+briansnat]

Swag isn't exactly a "made up word", at least in the sense you think. It has been used as a term for free stuff (giveaways) for some time. It's fairly common slang and I first heard it used in this sense about 8 years ago. According to this, it goes back a loooot further:

 

In British thieves' slang swag was 'a thief's plunder or booty; a quantity of goods unlawfully acquired'. The term appears in Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, where one of the definitions is 'any quantity of goods'. James Hardy Vaux, who was a convict in Australia, includes the term in the slang dictionary compiled in 1812 and published in his Memoirs in 1819: 'The Swag is a term used in speaking of any booty you have lately obtained'.

 

In Australia the term swag was transferred from the quantity of goods acquired by a thief to the possessions carried by a traveller in the bush.

 

I guess the "Jolly swagman" in the Aussie song, Waltzing Matilda is an example of the latter usage.

 

Checking my Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary, among the definitions of swag are "goods obtained illegally" and "loot". My guessis the meaning has evolved from this usage and the idea that its an acronym for "stuff we all get" is apocryphal and of recent vintage.

Edited June 2, 2004 by briansnat

[+SixDogTeam]

swag is the opposite of gumf

[+Prairie Dog]

I say "schwag". Pronounced shu-wag.

 

If used in the wrong part of town someone might try to sell you something.

[+Sparky-Watts]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

That would be akin to "Barnstabling".......

[Swagger]

I've been using 'swag' for over ten years. I started hearing/using it to refer to promotional materials handed out at events which were attended by a radio station that a friend of mine worked at. I got some good swag when he was working there.

[+Phone guy]

gumf is not a made up word either, at least by me. Slang is slang. Slang

[uperdooper]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

That would be akin to "Barnstabling".......

[+Renegade Knight]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

That would be akin to "Barnstabling".......

I would of thought that's when you hate the slang everyone uses and then try to make up a new word to replace the old perfectly good one.

 

As opposed to coming up with a word for soemthing that needs one but doesn't have one...

[+cache_us_if_you_can]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

That would be akin to "Barnstabling".......

Ringbone?

[+TotemLake]

oookaaaayy

Well then I am going to make up a few words and see if I can get them to go. What do you think?

That would be akin to "Barnstabling".......

[+Phone guy]

I see that word spreads pretty fast.

Well I have to go empty the gumf so I'll be back soon.

[+RichardMoore]

Argh, matey!

Avast ye there!

"Swag" be an old pirating word fer the treasure that we plundered.

[+cache_us_if_you_can]

I see that word spreads pretty fast.

Well I have to go empty the gumf so I'll be back soon.

Just checked on your caches while in town... no gumf there

[4x4van]

My son and I use the term "geoloot" for our trade items. I like it better than "swag" since it's geocache-specific.

[+Phone guy]

My son and I use the term "geoloot" for our trade items. I like it better than "swag" since it's geocache-specific

 

That works for me, but they have different ways in the forums. You'll have a hard time changing terms like swag or gumf, I think those are going to be around for awhile.

[+SixDogTeam]

I don't think gumf is in the same class as swag, in terms of popularity of use.

[+briansnat]

This thread is the first place I've ever seen the term gumf.

[+Phone guy]

I don't think gumf is in the same class as swag, in terms of popularity of use.

If all goes well, it will be someday.

 

This thread is the first place I've ever seen the term gumf.

I have used it in other threads.

[+Jeeters]

And for those of us that have hit trade shows, SWAG = Stuff We All Get...ie, the marketing type giveaways that you get when you visit booths.

That's where I first heard the word. All that free stuff with company logos on it that gets handed out: kooshes, pens, frisbees, etc.

[+metaldog]

If you ask me - and no one did- from what little caching I've done, I think some people are leaving gumf behind as swag anyway. Maybe they weren't reading the posts as to the difference between the two...