THE VERB "TO SAG." [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "]
SIE,—Your reviewer and Mr. Bram Stoker could, I am sure, tell me heaps of things that I do not know, and I suppose we all learn something new every week of our lives. But may I say that the verb "to sag" is not uncommon, and needs no authority. It is not often used metaphorically, but it is a dictionary word, to which no sign that it is obsolete or pro- vincial is attached; and it is in common use. "That coat sags against the lining." "The wall-paper up there sags." "You have not filled that bag of sand; it sags." " Jessy, your doll sags ; make her sit up." The dictionaries make " sag " a nautical term, too ; but I suppose its ugliness keeps it out of
polite literature, pretty much.—I am, Sir, &c., A SAGGER.
[We suspect nine persons out of every ten would have in- quired the meaning of such light colloquialisms, unless very thoroughly up in their .1faebeth, which nine persons in every ten certainly are not.—En. Spectator.]
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