Cache Swag?

[+spiritfilledfamily]

OK I'm an idiot or just way too new at this. What is a cache swag, what is it used for?

[+GPSKitty]

Swag is the goodies in the cache. The trinkets, the broken Mctoys. Hopefully it's better quality than that. It's been discussed here before and I think it stands for Stuff We All Get, originating from conventions where the vendors pass out stuff to the visitors, thus it's 'stuff we all get' from the vendors.

I'm sure somone can explain better and/or give a better history of the term.

 

PS..if you go to the Getting Started section of these forums, there is a thread at the top called "read this first" or something along those lines. It explains lots of terminology and other stuff.

Edited June 14, 2004 by GPSKitty

[+spiritfilledfamily]

Thanks GPSKitty. I think you explained it just fine. And now I really do feel like an idiot! Kind of a "DUH" moment for me!

 

BTW, I emailed my dad your "Everyone is born right handed" quote....he is a lefty and very proud of it!

Edited June 14, 2004 by spiritfilledfamily

[+briansnat]

t's been discussed here before and I think it stands for Stuff We All Get, originating from conventions where the vendors pass out stuff to the visitors, thus it's 'stuff we all get' from the vendors.

I'm sure somone can explain better and/or give a better history of the term.

 

Well you asked for it. Here is a copy of a recent post of mine in the Getting Started forum on this subject:

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 guess is the the current 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 14, 2004 by briansnat

[+GPSKitty]

I bow down before your greatness.....I am not worthy.

[+briansnat]

I bow down before your greatness.....I am not worthy.

 

Awww shucks, but it was nothin'...other than the magic of Google.

[+Robespierre]

But I think you left out piracy. Pirates used the term swag too.