on stag
AWILLIS957
"I had just been left to stew as Sundance lay half asleep on the settee.
Trainers was wide awake and on stag, smoking his roll-up, draped across the two
armchairs, making sure I didn't have any stupid ideas." ("First Light". Andy
McNab.)
I am presuming it means "on guard", but I'm not sure. Has anyone heard of this?
Albert Peasemarch.
Donna Richoux
Cassell's Dictionary doesn't have it, neither under "stag" nor "on
stag". I'm trying to think if it could be a typo for something, but the
closest I can come is "on stage."
--
Best -- Donna Richoux
Richard Fontana
I searched Google for "+was +on stag" and found a few relevant hits. It
looks to me like this was British army slang during WWII and probably
meant something like "on guard" or "on watch". Here are the examples:
No, he was spotted a couple of Jerries coming over one night
when he was on stag so he ran to tell the nearest officer or NCO, to warn
them.
12th April, 1942. My friendly Japanese guard was on stag again today.
I was on stag and I was in the Bren post at the bottom of the camp the
camp was on a hill and there was a valley running up towards the camp, it
was quite overgrown with bushes and was an excellent covered approach to
the camp wire.
I was on stag on this occasion when the radio warned of a 'air raid
warning red' this meant that within 5 minutes the Argie Jets would be
back to strut their stuff.
One night just as dusk was starting to creep across the hills, I was
on stag duty on the Bren gun we had set up in one of the upstairs windows
of the farm house. I was just settling down to another freezing night
when I spotted a figure in the distance walking towards our farm house.
John Dean
"Donna Richoux" <tr...@euronet.nl> wrote in message
news:1f3pp6s.25yyh5a1b1ayN%tr...@euronet.nl...
It's a genuine piece of Brit Army slang. And friends, I should know, I have
*been* on stag .....
It means 'on watch' or 'on guard duty' or 'on sentry-go'. When a rota is set
up for overnight guard at, say, two-hourly intervals, the first guy is 'on
first stag', the second 'on second stag' etc. But it's also come to mean
ceremonial duty eg standing at the camp gate.
The SOED has 'stag' as a transitive verb from 1796 meaning 'to observe; to
take particular notice of; to watch' and I suspect this is the origin.
--
John Dean
Oxford
De-frag to reply
Richard Fontana
> It's a genuine piece of Brit Army slang. And friends, I should know, I have
> *been* on stag .....
>
> It means 'on watch' or 'on guard duty' or 'on sentry-go'. When a rota is set
> up for overnight guard at, say, two-hourly intervals, the first guy is 'on
> first stag', the second 'on second stag' etc. But it's also come to mean
> ceremonial duty eg standing at the camp gate.
>
> The SOED has 'stag' as a transitive verb from 1796 meaning 'to observe; to
> take particular notice of; to watch' and I suspect this is the origin.
Here's what the OED says (= UK "say"?):
d. A spell of duty. (See also quot. 1881.)
* 1881 S. Evans A.B.E. Evans's Leicestershire Words (new ed.) 255 A
`stag' is also one set to watch while his fellows are engaged in
anything in which they wish not to be caught.
* 1931 Brophy & Partridge Songs & Slang Brit; Soldier: 1914-18 (ed.
3) 361 Stag, sentry-go.
* 1958 R. Storey Touch it Light in J. C. Trewin Plays of Year XVIII.
341 There's seven stags in the hours o' darkness and only five of
you to do 'em. Somebody has to do two.
* 1975 A. Beevor Violent Brink iv. 97 The films would be handed in
for processing when they were relieved at the end of their two
hour `stag'.
It has this as one of several slang senses of noun "stag" for which it
says "Prob. from sense 1 [male deer]; but the reason for the use is
obscure."
Linz
> Here's what the OED says (= UK "say"?):
No. UK "says".