In deference to those who object to links to commercial sites, I will just post the relevant sentence from a site touting for subscriptions to a Canadian magazine:
In addition to some great articles, we have silliness, some schwag, and even a really long poll.
Now, is schwag a Canadianism or is it more widely used? I gather it refers to souvenir itemries one can purchase to indicate to the world at large one's support for a particular product.
Bingley
In reply to:
some schwag
It occurs often, but usually spelled (and pronounced) swag. It's the ephemeral toys one gets a conferences, like keycgains and t-shirts. At least that's what it means in Silicon Valley, Kaliforniens. I first noticed it a decade or so ago.
in some contexts schwag can be taken as a slang term for "bad weed". but here, it seems more in keeping with swag, a window dressing.
> ephemeral toys one gets a conferences
yep, that would be my take too, and I had always assumed a kind of backformation from 'swag bag' since there are always a plethora of kewl bags pre-stuffed with toys, gimmicks and publications. But that swag bag's a WAG so don't nag if negative!
'swag bag'This page has some more meanings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swag
>But that swag bag's a WAG so don't nag if negative!
but not a SWAG?!
-ron (prescience through foresight) obvious
from the wiki grab-bag:
Swag is actually an acronym for "Stuff We All Get", originated from the .com years where companies used these give-away items as promotional mechanisms.
Swag can also stand for "Stolen While At Gig"hmmmm. not a wiki classic, I fear. This marketing device long predates the dot com bubble. It might be fairer to describe these as post-facto rationalisations (or folk etymology) unless they have decisive citations, since the natural meaning is long established and is a more natural leap (swag as booty, loot).
http://www.bartleby.com/61/97/S0929700.html
but mav. note that the foremost def'n from your link covers "window dressing", while the lattermost covers "bad weed".
-joe (tootles) f.
yep, I note that, but it still seems a more obvious connection to me: freebies > loot. There's a long history of visually based humour too of the swag-bag toting thief carting off his ill-gotten gains - that's international, isn't it, all-y'all?
But you could well be right, depending on the context of the site - mebbe they meant it to indicate 'pretty window dressing' in addition to other kinds of content. Come in Bing!
Wikipedia also lists
schwag, under its entry for Promotional Item:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotional_item...as do a number of other sites, including The Urban Dictionary. But I, too, had never heard of it before you brought it up, Bingley.
good fetch AsP - can the yiddish be verified or dated by anyone though?
Yiddish
I think it is the word chochke that is being said to derive from Yiddish, and not schwag. (It's in neither Weinreich nor Harkavy.
One wonders if swag became schwag in the about the same manner that sweet became schweet in the parlance of some.
>can the yiddish be . . . dated by anyone though?
I used to date a Yiddish girl. Her name was Carmen Cohen. Her mom called her Carmen and her dad called her Cohen, so sometimes she didn't know if she was Carmen or Cohen.
Hey, I warned you!
> didn't know if she was Carmen
well, you probably didn't date long, eh?
<oy! running away-e>
The schwag referred to all seems to be T-shirts, sports shirts and other tops emblazoned with the name of the magazine. They aren't free.
Bingley
Just for the record, I had never seen the word "schwag". It might be a regional word, too.