We got this note from Tangletown’s finest Mexican restaurant, Bandolero (2253 N 56th St):
Throughout the past year, we’ve managed to collect lots of shwag from various beer and liquor companies and have neglected to hand it out to our fine patrons. Tonight we’re going to remedy that and lay it all out on the table, literally. Stop in any time after 5pm tonight and pick up some fancy glassware or a sexy t-shirt from our shwag table and help us clear out the abundance of free stuff
Dibs on the cowboy boot tequila shot glass!
(Pictured Tequila Bandolero Holster not available, probably)
I have a stupid question that I’ve been meaning to ask for a while now and I might as well ask it here. When did SWAG (Stuff We All Get) become Schwag?
‘Swag’ isn’t an acronym – Stuff We All Get is a backronym.
Swag has been used for centuries to mean ‘curved bag’ and/or ‘loot.’ As for ‘schwag’, from the same link:
The “trifling, low-grade” sense of swag led to its being appropriated as a slang term for inferior or ersatz marijuana (first published appearance: 1986). Sometime in the early 1990s swag became schwag, “perhaps after words of Yiddish origin” such as shmuck, says the OED—although Yinglish schlock (something of inferior quality) seems an equally likely influence. (Of course, one must never underestimate the influence of Wayne’s World [1988-1994] and schwing.) Besides being a synonym for bad marijuana, schwag can also be a modifier meaning simply “inferior.”
Darn. Quote tag fail.
This is awesome – thank you! I had no idea – and I love “backronym”. I sent this link to my husband because he loves word origins, etc.
Schwag is also more fun to say.. “shhhhhwwwwwaaaaag”