lag

Origin uncertain, but probably of North Germanic origin, related to Norwegian lagga (“to go slowly”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /læɡ/
• Rhymes: -æɡ

lag

1. late
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, King Richard III

     Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, / That came too lag to see him buried.

2. (obsolete) Last; long-delayed.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     the lag end of my life

3. Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     lag souls

lag (countable and uncountable, plural lags)

1. (countable) A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency.
   • 2004, May 10. The New Yorker Online,

     During the Second World War, for instance, the Washington Senators had a starting rotation that included four knuckleball pitchers. But, still, I think that some of that was just a generational lag.

2. (uncountable) Delay; latency.
   • 1999, Loyd Case, Building the ultimate game PC

     Whatever the symptom, lag is a drag. But what causes it? One cause is delays in getting the data from your PC to the game server.

   • 2001, Patricia M. Wallace, The psychology of the Internet

     When the lag is low, 2 or 3 seconds perhaps, Internet chatters seem reasonably content.

   • 2002, Marty Cortinas, Clifford Colby, The Macintosh bible

     Latency, or lag, is an unavoidable part of Internet gaming.

3. (Britain, slang, archaic) One sentenced to transportation for a crime.
4. (Britain, slang) a prisoner, a criminal.
   • 1934, P. G. Wodehouse, Thank You, Jeeves

     On both these occasions I had ended up behind the bars, and you might suppose that an old lag like myself would have been getting used to it by now.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     He sat with his great head tipped forward, scowling with a lag's sullenness, and I swear he had closed off his hearing with his thinking and hadn't heard us coming. 'Father,' said Pym.

5. (snooker) A method of deciding which player shall start. Both players simultaneously strike a cue ball from the baulk line to hit the top cushion and rebound down the table; the player whose ball finishes closest to the baulk cushion wins.
6. One who lags; that which comes in last.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

     the lag of all the flock

7. The fag-end; the rump; hence, the lowest class.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     the common lag of people

8. A stave of a cask, drum, etc.; especially (engineering) one of the narrow boards or staves forming the covering of a cylindrical object, such as a boiler, or the cylinder of a carding machine or steam engine.
9. A bird, the greylag.

In casual use, lag and latency are used synonymously for “time delay between initiating an action and the effect”, with lag more casual. In formal use, latency is the technical term, while lag is used when latency is greater than usual, particularly in internet gaming. When used as a comparative to refer to the distance between moving objects “lag” refers to a moving object that has not yet reached the reference object position, whether linear or rotational. The term “latency” is not used in technical jargon for linear or rotational distance. The neutral term “displacement” can be used ambiguously and may refer to the distance between objects without indicating direction. In this use, “lag” “lags” and “lagging” are the complements of “lead”, “leads”, and “leading”. For example “For any AC power system, at all reactive loads the current waveform has a phase displacement or power factor to the voltage. An inductive load has a lagging power factor, while a capacitive load has a leading PF.”

• (delay): latency

lag (third-person singular simple present lags, present participle lagging, simple past and past participle lagged)

1. to fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Canto I

     Behind her farre away a Dwarfe did lag, / That lasie seemd in being ever last, / Or wearied with bearing of her bag / Of needments at his backe.

   • 1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer

     Lazy beast! / Why last art thou now? Thou hast never used / To lag thus hindmost

   • 1717, The Metamorphoses of Ovid translated into English verse under the direction of Sir Samuel Garth by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve and other eminent hands

     While he, whose tardy feet had lagg'd behind, / Was doom'd the sad reward of death to find.

   • 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in seven parts

     Brown skeletons of leaves that lag / My forest-brook along

   • 2004, — The New Yorker, 5 April 2004

     Over the next fifty years, by most indicators dear to economists, the country remained the richest in the world. But by another set of numbers—longevity and income inequality—it began to lag behind Northern Europe and Japan.

2. to cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material

   (referring to a time lag effect in thermal transfer) [1]

   • c. 1974, Philip Larkin, The Building

     Outside seems old enough: / Red brick, lagged pipes, and someone walking by it / Out to the car park, free.

3. (Britain, slang, archaic) To transport as a punishment for crime.
   • (Can we date this quote?) De Quincey

     She lags us if we poach.

4. (transitive) To cause to lag; to slacken.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Heywood

     To lag his flight.

• lagging

• tardy

• Latency (engineering) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Building insulation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Jet lag on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Turbo lag on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• AGL, Alg., GAL, GLA, Gal, Gal., gal, gal., μGal

From Dutch lachen.

• IPA^(key): /ɫɐχ/

lag (present lag, present participle laggende, past participle gelag)

1. to laugh

• glimlag

From Proto-Albanian *lauga, from Proto-Indo-European *lowg- (compare Old Norse laug (“hot spring, bath”), Latvian luga (“marshy deposit, silt”), Serbo-Croatian lȕža (“puddle, pool”)).

lag (first-person singular past tense laga, participle lagur)

1. to wet, moisten
2. (colloquial) to water
3. (geography) to wash land (of a body of water)

• lagë, lagësht, lagështirë, lëgatë, lagaterë, lug

From Proto-Albanian *lag-, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lay, lie (down)”). Cognate with Ancient Greek λόχος (lókhos, “ambush, ambuscade, armed band”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (lagjan, “to lay”). Singular form of lagje.

lag m

1. troop, band, encampment

• lagje
• log

From Old Norse lag.

• IPA^(key): /laːɡ/, [læːˀj], [læjˀ]
• Rhymes: -æː

lag n (singular definite laget, plural indefinite lag)

1. layer
2. coat, coating
3. class
4. stratum

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -ɑx
• IPA^(key): /lɑx/
• Homophones: lach

lag

1. singular past indicative of liggen

• alg, gal

• IPA^(key): /lɛaː/
• Rhymes: -ɛaː
• Homophones: lað, læ, læð

lag n (genitive singular lags, plural løg)

1. layer
2. (in compounds) what belongs together (company, union)
3. regularity, order
4. skill, capability
5. method, system
6. importance
7. mood
8. design, shape
9. melody

what belongs together

• (in compounds): felag, hjúnalag, etc.

order

• í lagi - in order, all right, ok

skill

• hann hevur gott lag á tí - he has good skills in that

importance

• tað liggur einki lag á - this is not important

mood

• tað er einki lag á honum - he is in a bad mood

• andalag
• arbeiðslag
• eyðkennislag
• ferðalag
• grundarlag
• havnarlag
• huglag
• jarðlag
• ljóðlag
• niðurlag
• parlag
• rakstrarlag
• sólarlag
• stiglag
• stjórnarlag
• tjóðlag
• undirlag
• veðurlag
• yrkingarlag
• ørindislag

• Rhymes: -aːk

lag

1. First-person singular preterite of liegen.
2. Third-person singular preterite of liegen.

lag

1. Romanization of 𐌻𐌰𐌲

From Old Norse lag.

• IPA^(key): /laːɣ/ (

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• Rhymes: -aːɣ

lag n (genitive singular lags, nominative plural lög)

1. layer
2. (geology) stratum
3. tune, song
4. order
5. thrust, stab
6. good method, knack

From Old Irish lac, from Proto-Celtic *laggos, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₁g-, compare English slack and Latin laxus (“slack”).

• (Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /l̪ˠɑɡ/
• (Connemara, Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /l̪ˠaɡ/

lag (genitive singular masculine laig, genitive singular feminine laige, plural laga, comparative laige)

1. weak

lag m

1. lake

• għadira f

From Old Norse lag

lag n (definite singular laget, indefinite plural lag, definite plural laga or lagene)

1. layer

   "Denne sjokoladen har et lag med hvitt lag utenpå." (This chocolate has a white outer layer.)

2. team (group of people)

   Jeg skal spille for et nytt lag i morgen siden jeg måtte bytte da jeg har flytta.

   I'll be playing for a different team tomorrow as I've had to change because I moved.

3. (rare, especially outside stock phrases) mood; very frequently found in the definite ("laget"), often preceded by "godt" (see below)

   "Han er i godt lag i dag." (He's having a good day. / He's happy. / He's happy today.)

4. (quite rare) party; found mainly in the phrase "godt lag" meaning "good people", "good company" or "good party"

   "I godt lag spiller det ingen rolle hva man feirer, hvor eller hvordan." (Surrounded by friendly/good/nice people, it doesn't matter why you are celebrating, or where or how.)

5. (military) a squad

• (sense 2) team

lag

1. imperative of lage

• “lag” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse lag

lag n (definite singular laget, indefinite plural lag, definite plural laga)

1. layer
2. team (group of people)
3. mood
4. (military) a squad

• (sense 2) team

lag

1. imperative of laga

• “lag” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *lagą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-.

lag n (genitive lags, plural lǫg)

1. stratum, layer
2. due place, right position
3. companionship, fellowship
4. living together
5. cohabitation
6. market price, tax
7. thrust, stab (with a knife, sword or spear)
8. air, tune

• laga
• leggja
• liggja

• Icelandic: lag n; lög n pl
• Norwegian: lag n; lov f

• lag in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, G. T. Zoëga, Clarendon Press, 1910, at Internet Archive.

From Proto-Germanic *lēgaz (“low”).

lāg (comparative lāgiro, superlative lāgist)

1. low

• (Sutsilvan) laitg
• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sutsilvan, Surmiran, Vallader) lai
• (Puter) lej

From Latin lacus, from Proto-Italic *lakus, from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pool”).

lag m (plural lags)

1. (Sursilvan, Sutsilvan) lake

lag

1. weak, feeble

• deoch-lag

From Old Swedish lagh, from Old Norse lǫg. Cognate with Danish lov, Norwegian lov, English law. Related to Old Norse leggja “to define”.

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lag c

1. a law; a written or understood rule that concerns behaviours and the appropriate consequences thereof. Laws are usually associated with mores.
2. law; the body of written rules governing a society.
3. a law; a one-sided contract.
4. a law; an observed physical law.
5. (mathematics) a law; a statement that is true under specified conditions.

• In the expression vara någon till lags (“to be of service to someone”), this is an ancient genitive controlled by the preposition till (“to”)

• juridik

From Old Swedish lagher, from Old Norse lǫgr, from Proto-Germanic *laguz, from Proto-Indo-European *lakw-. Cognate with Latin lacus.

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lag c

1. (cooking) a water-based solution of sugar, salt and/or other spices; e.g. brine

• saltlag
• sockerlag
• ättikslag

From Old Swedish lagh, from Old Norse lag. Derived from Old Norse leggja (“to lay”) or liggja (“to lie”).

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lag n

1. a workgroup, a team; group of people which in sports compete together versus another team; or in general, work closely together

• lag in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

lag

1. wild cat

From Old Norse lǫgr, from Proto-Germanic *laguz, from Proto-Indo-European *lókus (“lake, pond.”)

lag m (definite lagjän)

1. liquid, decoction of something

• genlag

From Old Norse lag n (“stratum, layer; due place; fellowship; cohabitation; etc.,”) pl lǫg (“law, laws; participation or fellowship in law,”) from Proto-Germanic *lagą, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down.”)

lag n (definite lagjä)

1. layer
2. the hay in the barn or the unthreshed grain, or the straw thereof

   Bär mäg hit’n knipp bothti halm-lage

   Carry to me a bundle of the straw lying in the barn!

3. gathering, company

lag f (definite laga)

1. law

Neuter definite plural laga and feminine definite singular laga are not distinguishable in form, but only through surrounding grammar.

• gravölslag
• i lag
• lagbok
• lawi