tag

From Middle English tagge (“small piece hanging from a garment”), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian tagg (“point; prong; barb; tag”), Swedish tagg (“thorn; prickle; tine”), Icelandic tág (“a willow-twig”). Compare also tack.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: tăg, IPA^(key): /tæɡ/
• (North American also) IPA^(key): /teɪɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɡ

tag (plural tags)

1. (heading) Physical appendage.
   1. A small label.
   2. A skin tag, an excrescence of skin.
   3. A dangling lock of sheep's wool, matted with dung; a dung tag.
   4. Any slight appendage, as to an article of dress; something slight hanging loosely.
   5. A metallic binding, tube, or point, at the end of a string, or lace, to stiffen it.
   6. (biochemistry) Any short peptide sequence artificially attached to proteins mostly in order to help purify, solubilize or visualize these proteins.
   7. Something mean and paltry; the rabble, originally refer to rag as torn cloth.
      • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

        For upon the like Proclamation there, they all came in, both tag and rag

2. (heading) Last nonphysical appendage.
   1. (music) The last line (or last two lines) of a song's chorus that is repeated to indicate the end of the song.
   2. (television) The last scene of a TV program, often focusing on the program's subplot.

      Antonym: cold open

      • 2006, Stephen V. Duncan, A Guide to Screenwriting Success, page 300:

        Often, the tag punctuates the "we're all in this together" theme and is topped with a laugh.

   3. The end, or catchword, of an actor's speech; cue.
3. (heading) Nonphysical label.
   1. (informal, authorship) An attribution in narrated dialogue (eg, "he said") or attributed words (e.g. "he thought").

      Synonyms: dialogue tag, speech tag, tag line

      • (Can we date this quote?), michael, alt.fiction.original‎^[1] (Usenet):

        Seems here like Russ would be speaking. You could use a tag here.

      • (Can we date this quote?), Jane MacDonald, alt.fiction.original‎^[2] (Usenet):

        If you want to start with talk, stick a tag in right away

      • (Can we date this quote?), bart_...@hotmail.com, alt.fiction.original‎^[3] (Usenet):

        You could combine these two paragraphs, I think, and rewrite to lose the tag portion of the third sentence.

   2. (computing) A piece of markup representing an element in a markup language.

      The <title> tag provides a title for the Web page.

      The <sarcasm> tag conveys sarcasm in Internet slang.

   4. (computing) A keyword, term, or phrase associated with or assigned to data, media, and/or information enabling keyword-based classification; often used to categorize content.

      I want to add genre and artist tags to the files in my music collection.

4. (heading) Identity.
   1. (chiefly US) A vehicle number plate; a medal bearing identification data (animals, soldiers).

      The subwoofer in the trunk was so loud, it vibrated the tag like an aluminum can.

   2. (slang) A person's name.

      What’s your tag?

5. (heading) Involving being tagged physically.
   2. (uncountable) A game, especially for children on playgrounds, in which one player (known as "it") attempts to touch another, who then becomes "it"; any similar game of chasing and trying to reach, touch, shoot, or label other players.

      Synonyms: (Australia) tips, (UK) it

      Hyponyms: archery tag, dart tag, freeze tag, laser tag, zombie tag

   3. (baseball) An instance of touching the baserunner with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand to rule him "out."

      The tag was applied at second for the final out.

6. (heading) Signature.
   1. Graffiti in the form of a stylized signature particular to the artist.
      • 2011, Scape Martinez, Graff 2: Next Level Graffiti Techniques, page 124:

        There is a hierarchy of sorts: a throw-up can go over a tag, a piece over a throw-up, and a burner over a piece.

7. A type of cardboard.
8. A sheep in its first year.
   • 1807, The Complete Farmer, or, General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry, →OCLC:

     After being weaned, the ram or wedder lamb is sometimes termed hog, hoggit, or tag, during the whole of the first year

(children's game to avoid being "it"):

• chasey
• dodgeball
• paintball

tag (third-person singular simple present tags, present participle tagging, simple past and past participle tagged)

1. (transitive) To label (something).
2. (transitive) To mark (something) with one's graffiti tag.
3. (transitive) To remove dung tags from a sheep.

   Regularly tag the rear ends of your sheep.

4. (transitive, baseball, colloquial) To hit the ball hard.

   He really tagged that ball.

5. (transitive, vulgar, slang, 1990s) to have sex with someone (especially a man of a woman)

   Steve is dying to tag Angie from chemistry class.

6. (transitive, baseball) To put a runner out by touching them with the ball or the ball in a gloved hand.

   He tagged the runner for the out.

7. (transitive, computing) To mark with a tag (metadata for classification).

   Antonym: untag

   I am tagging my music files by artist and genre.

8. (transitive, Internet) To attach the name of (a user) to a posted message so that they are linked from the post and possibly sent a notification.
   • 2021, Julie B. Wiest, Theorizing Criminality and Policing in the Digital Media Age, page 82:

     One side wants to demonstrate a higher level of street knowledge and openly denounces the distorting lens of Instagram dissings; the other embraces the medium's branding affordances by sending “clout” to a third-party ally, while at the same time avoiding tagging the opponent.

9. To follow closely, accompany, tag along.
   • 1906 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “By Courier”, in The Four Million, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co, →OCLC:

     A tall young man came striding through the park along the path near which she sat. Behind him tagged a boy carrying a suit-case.

10. (transitive) To catch and touch (a player in the game of tag).
11. (transitive) To fit with, or as if with, a tag or tags.
    • 1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica‎^[4]:

      He learned to make long-tagged thread laces.

    • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Eighth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

      His courteous host […] / Tags every sentence with some fawning word.

12. To fasten; to attach.
    • a. 1751, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, an essay

      they began to tag their law with the scraps of philofophy

Borrowed from Aramaic תגא (taga, “crown”). Doublet of taj.

tag (plural tagin or tagim)

2. A decoration drawn over some Hebrew letters in Jewish scrolls, especially in Stam style.

• “tag”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• tag (Hebrew writing) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• tag (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ATG, GTA, TGA, gat

• tage (Luserna)

From Middle High German tag, tac, from Old High German tag, tac, from Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz. Cognate with German Tag, English day.

tag m (plural taaghe)

1. (Sette Comuni) day

• gabüarttag

• “tag” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

From Proto-Germanic *dagaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”).

tag

1. day
   • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Tag. Dies.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• knauen tag

From Old Norse þak (“thatch, roof”), from Proto-Germanic *þaką, cognate with Swedish tak, English thack, thatch, German Dach, Dutch dak.

• IPA^(key): /taːˀɣ/, [ˈtˢæˀ(j)]

tag n (singular definite taget, plural indefinite tage)

1. roof

• tække

From Old Norse tak (“hold, grasp”), cognate with Norwegian tak, Swedish tag. Derived from the verb taka (Danish tage).

• IPA^(key): /ta(ːˀ)ɣ/, [ˈtˢæˀ(j)], [ˈtˢɑw]

tag n (singular definite taget, plural indefinite tag)

1. hold, grasp, grip
2. stroke (with an oar or with the armes in the water)
3. handling, control

Borrowed from English tag (since 1985).

• IPA^(key): /taɡ/, [ˈtˢæɡ̊]

tag n (singular definite tagget, plural indefinite tags)

1. tag (signature of a graffiti artist)
2. (computing) tag (markup in an electronic file)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ta(ːˀ)/, [ˈtˢæ(ˀ)]

tag

1. imperative of tage

Borrowed from English tag.

• Audio:

  (file)

tag n (plural tags, diminutive tagje n)

1. tag

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɑɡ/, [ˈt̪ɑ̝ɡ]
• Rhymes: -ɑɡ
• Syllabification^(key): tag
• Hyphenation^(key): tag

tag

1. alternative form of tagi

• “tag”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[5] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

Borrowed from English tag.

• IPA^(key): /taɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɡ

tag m (plural tags)

1. tag

• IPA^(key): /taːk/
• Rhymes: -aːk

tag

1. singular imperative of tagen

Of unknown origin.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɒɡ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tag
• Rhymes: -ɒɡ

tag (plural tagok)

2. member
3. synonym of végtag (“limb”)

Borrowed from English tag (“piece of markup”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛɡ]
• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

tag (plural tagek)

2. (computing) tag (a piece of markup representing an element in a markup language)

Borrowed from English tag (“a piece of graffiti”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛɡ]
• Rhymes: -ɛɡ

tag (plural tagek)

2. tag (graffiti in the form of a stylized signature particular to the artist)

• tag in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

tag

1. arm, hand

tag m

1. alternative form of tac

• tac, tak, dac, *dag — northern

From Proto-West Germanic *dag, from Proto-Germanic *dagaz, whence also Old English dæġ, Old Norse dagr, Old Dutch and Old Saxon dag, Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”).

• IPA^(key): /taɡ/, /taɣ/

tag m (plural taga)

1. day

   tag after tage

   day after day

• Middle High German: tac, tag, dach
  • Alemannic German: Tag

    Alsatian: Dàà (north), Dàj (center), Dàg (south)

    Italian Walser: tag, tog, tàg

    Swabian: Dag

  • Bavarian: Da, Dåg, Doch

    Cimbrian: tak, ta, tag, tage

    Mòcheno: ta

    Udinese: tach, ti

  • Central Franconian: Daach

    Hunsrik: Daagh, taach (Wiesemann spelling system), Tóch, Tooch (Altenhofen spelling)

  • East Central German:

    Upper Saxon German: Dag

  • German: Tag

    Esperanto: tago

  • Luxembourgish: Dag, Do
  • Rhine Franconian: Tach

    Pennsylvania German: Daag

  • Transylvanian Saxon: Dåch
  • Vilamovian: taog
  • Yiddish: טאָג (tog)

• Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer

Borrowed from English tag.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtak/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: tag
• Homophones: Tag, tak

tag m inan

1. (computing) tag (piece of markup representing an element in a markup language)

   Synonym: znacznik

• tag in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tag in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English tag.

tag f or m (plural tags)

1. tag (type of graffiti)
2. an RFID chip, especially one used to unlock electronic door locks, often carried as a key fob
3. (computing) tag (a markup instruction)
4. (computing) tag (keyword, term, or phrase associated with or assigned to data, media, and/or information)

• “tag”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

tag

1. romanization of 𒋳 (tag)

From Old Norse tak.

• IPA^(key): /tɑːɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

tag n

1. a grip, a hold (of something)

   Tappa inte taget

   Don't lose your grip

   Släpp inte taget!

   Don't let go [Don't release your grip]!

   ta tag i något

   grab something [take grip in something]

   få tag i någon/något

   get hold of someone/something

2. (figuratively, in "ta tag i (något)") to get down to dealing with (something)
3. a stroke (with oars or an oar, a paddle, or the like; in swimming)

   ett tag till med åran

   one more stroke with the oar

   ta ett årtag

   take a stroke with oars (or an oar)

   ta ett paddeltag

   take a stroke with a paddle

   ta några simtag

   take a few swimming strokes

4. a while (limited, often short time period)

   Hon kommer om ett tag

   She will be here in a while

   Det kommer ta ett bra tag

   It will take a good while

   ett litet tag

   a little while

   Det är inget jag glömmer i första taget

   It's not something I will forget in a hurry [in the first while]

5. a manner of doing something (can be thought of as "grips" as a metaphor for how one goes about something)

   en maskin som tål tuffa tag

   a machine that can take a beating ("that can stand tough grips")

   friska tag

   spunk, vigor ("fresh grips")

   Somliga gillar hårda tag

   Some like it rough

• vara i tagen

• grabba

tag

1. imperative of taga

• ta

• tag in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tag in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tag in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• ATG

Back-formation from tagu (“to strangle, to choke”).

tag m (plural tagau or tagion)

1. choking, suffocation

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “tag”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

See tas.

• IPA^(key): /ta˧˩̤/

tag

1. alternative form of tas (“day segment”)

tag

1. alternative form of tas (“completion particle”)

More commonly used than tas.

• Heimbach, Ernest E. (1979) White Hmong — English Dictionary‎^[6], SEAP Publications, →ISBN.