Forms: 5–6 bagage, 6 bagguage, baggadge, (badgage), bagige, 5– baggage. [a. OF. bagage (15th c. in Littré) ‘property packed up for carriage’ (= Pr. bagatge, Sp. bagage), f. baguer ‘to tie up, bind, truss up,’ or f. the cogn. sb. bagues, i.e., ‘bundles, packs’ (used, much earlier, in the same sense as the collective bagage), pl. of bague = Pr. bagua, It. and late L. baga; cf. BAG. Sense 4, not in Fr., is found in Sp. bagage; 6 and 7 have been referred by various etymologists to F. bagasse (= Pr. baguassa, Sp. bagasa, It. bagascia), with which they coincide in sense; but no formal connection has been traced; they also arise naturally enough out of those that precede, and seem really to be senses of this word, at most influenced in use by the F. bagasse. The latter is itself of uncertain origin. See Littré.]
Commonly collective in senses 1–4 (formerly occas. with pl.); in senses 5–7 an ordinary sb. with pl.
1. The collection of property in packages that one takes along with him on a journey; portable property; luggage. (Now rarely used in Great Britain for ordinary ‘luggage’ carried in the hand or taken with one by public conveyance; but the regular term in U.S.)
c. 1430. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 18. To gete hem Bagage, put hem sylffe in prees.
c. 1450. ‘Chaucer’s’ Dreme, Wks. (Bell), 101. Was left not one, Horse, male, trusse, ne baggage.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. Baggage, baguaige.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 23. Indians … to serve and to cary baggage.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 11. Arrived with all our Baggage on the other side of the River.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xx. Mrs. Arnold politely offered to send … for my son’s baggage.
1883. P. Pember, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 110/1. Keep a sharp look out on your baggage.
2. spec. The portable equipment of an army; = L. impedimenta.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. xiii. 34. Baggage and fardellages must be taken.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xviii. 26. They of Heynaulte [sent back] their harneys and baggages by water.
1591. Garrard, Art Warre, 13. Borne of the Boyes amongest other Baggage.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, II. xi. 232. Two hundred … foot being faint stayed with the baggage.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3711/1. Their Artillery and heavy Baggage have passed likewise.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp, V. 515. The baggage of the British army is always an embarrassment.
b. The baggage-train of an army, and the men guarding it.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes. Turning the head of their baggages toward the fort.
1611. Bible, Judith vii. 2. Twelue thousand horsemen, beside the baggage, and other men that were afoot.
c. Bag and baggage: see BAG 19.
† 3. fig. Encumbrances, burdensome matters. Obs.
1607. Bacon, Riches, Ess. (Arb.), 230. I cannot call Riches better, then the Baggage of Vertue.
1757. Smollett, Reprisal, I. viii. (1777), 160. I … never burden my brain with unnecessary baggage.
† 4. Rubbish, refuse, dirt. Obs.
1549. Chaloner, Erasm. Moriæ Enc., A iv. Nettles, Thistles … or suche lyke baggage grow.
1576. Gascoigne, Steele Glas (Arb.), 79. When brewers put no bagage in their beere.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xviii. (1617), 318. Dust, Coales, Ashes and such other baggage.
1645. Ward, Serm. bef. Ho. Commons, 31. It runs out in weeds and baggage.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 88. A mere Glut, Like loathed Baggage to the nauseous Gut.
† b. Purulent or corrupt matter, pus. Obs.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex., 118 (D.). Naughty baggage and hurtfull phlegme.
1610. Barrough, Physick, V. vi. (1639), 278. The abscession being already come to suppuration … if the matter or any other baggage therein contained be not discussed [etc.].
† c. A trifle, a trashy article. Obs.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 205/2. May decke her selfe simply … neither haue these little trifling bagages.
† d. fig. Spoken or written trash, rubbish, ‘rot.’
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 1716. And shall thys baggage put by the word of God?
1545. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 83. A Boke … wherin he … settes oute much rifraffe, pelfery, trumpery, baggage, and beggerie ware.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’s Parl., 240. To read such beastly baggage.
† e. fig. Dregs, offscouring, riff-raff. Obs.
1603. H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 117. The very scum, rascallitie, and baggage of the people.
† f. Contemptuously applied after the Reformation to the rites and accessories of Roman Catholic worship. Obs.
1549. Olde, Erasm. Par. Eph., Prol. C iiij. This Popyshe baggage of dumme ceremonies.
1566. Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 191. Pilgremage, pardonis, and otheris sic baggage.
1566. Lincolnsh. Ch. Furn., 88. Vestments, Copes, albes, Tunacles and all other such baggages were defaced.
1579. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 85/1. They come with their deuotions, as to heare a masse, to do their bagage.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1368/1. With their hallowed baggages from Rome to poison the senses.
† 5. A worthless or vile fellow. Obs.
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits (1616), 209. They might soundly sleepe on his eyes, although by nature he were a baggage.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 111. Catamites and shamefull baggages that king Alexander the Great left there.
6. A worthless good-for-nothing woman; a woman of disreputable or immoral life, a strumpet.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. i. 3. Y’are a baggage, the Slies are no Rogues.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw., 81. Every common soldior carrying with him his she-baggage.
1611. Cotgr., Bagasse, a Baggage, Queane.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 197. A baggage, or Souldier’s Punk, Scortum Castrense.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 450, ¶ 5. That Wife dying, I took another, but both proved to be idle Baggages.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xii. He only swore the gal was a baggage, and that he was devilish unlucky.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., ii. (1858), 68. She was a disreputable, daring, laughing, painted French baggage, that Comic Muse.
7. Used familiarly or playfully of any young woman, especially in conjunction with artful, cunning, sly, pert, saucy, silly, etc. (Cf. wench, minx, hussy, gipsy, rogue, etc.)
1672. Davenant, Wits (1673), 182. The Baggages About you are able to earn their own living.
1687. Congreve, Old Batch., I. iii. I believe the Baggage loves me.
1715. Addison, Drummer, II. i. Here comes Abigal. I must teaze the baggage.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xxviii. Tell them they are two arrant little baggages.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, iii. 24. She has an orphan niece, a pretty, soft-hearted baggage.
† B. adj. (from attrib. use of the sb. in sense 4; cf. trumpery.) Obs.
† 1. Rubbishy, refuse. Obs.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. N. T., Pref. 10. The trashe and bagguage stuf … this man hath sifted out.
1640. J. Dyke, Worthy Commun., 203. Thistles, nettles, and such like baggage trash.
† 2. Trashy, worthless, beggarly, trumpery, despicable; cf. A 4. Obs.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, B b vj. In respect wherof the spoiles of the Percians were but vile, and bagage.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 458. Hyccara, a baggage Village of the barbarous People.
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinsh., II. 157/1. So addicted to poperie and that baggage religion.
1605. A. Wotton, Answ. Pop. Articles, 121. God … is crusht vp togeather into the compasse [of] a baggage wafer cake.
a. 1625. Boys, Wks. (1630), 183. We may not … breake God’s net, because there are some baggage fish.
† 3. Of persons: Morally worthless, good-for-nothing, vile, ‘scurvy.’ Obs.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 1003. This baggage fellow Burrus.
1592. Wyrley, Armorie, 147. His badgage mind to craft was whole disposd.
1626. Shirley, Maid’s Rev., IV. ii. That baggage Ambitious girl, Berinthia.
1668. Rolle, Abridgm., 56. Si home dit à … un Town-Clark … Thou art a … bribing Knave, a baggage Knave, a dissembling Knave … Action gist.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, II. 123 (D.). [He] had nothing to do with that baggage woman.
† 4. Purulent, nasty, corrupt. Obs.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 177. Affected with this baggage phlegme and distilling humour.
1597. Gerard, Herbal (1633), 665. [It] draweth forthe much baggage flegme.
C. Comb. and Attrib.
1. Obvious combinations, chiefly attrib., from the sb. in senses 1 and 2, as baggage-animal, -cart, -elephant, -horse, -man, -necessaries, -train, -wagon. Also baggage-bound adj.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxix. IX. 44. Many baggage-animals perished of hunger.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VII. xi. (1840), 95. The portmanteau … being put up into the baggage-cart.
1824. Edin. Rev., XLI. 35. I amused myself with looking at a baggage-elephant.
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 143. The Committie ordaines that Roger Oliver, baggage man of Ironegray, be answerable for the baggage horss thairof.
1820. Scott, Monast., xxxv. The pedlar was … accommodated with the use of a baggage horse.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1831), III. 13. Intrusted to a fellow to be delivered to our baggage-man.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, II. 245. The baggage-train accompanying our forces.
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2423/4. A Train of Artillery and a good number of Baggage-Wagons.
1867. Record, Supp. 7 Aug. The saddled donkeys, camels baggage-bound.
2. Special comb.: Baggage-check, a ticket for luggage on American railways; baggage-man or -master, one who has charge of the baggage of an army, or of the luggage on American railways; baggage-room, a luggage-office; baggage-smasher, American nickname for a railway-porter.
18[?]. Smith, Sup. Court Rep., I. 522. A passenger having lost her baggage check.
1815. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., X. 349. An assistant Baggage Master to each division.
1883. Agnes Crane, in Leis. Ho., 282/1. The baggage-masters leapt from their wide doors.
1883. Longman’s Mag., July, 285. The wretched little booking-office, and the baggage-room.
1880. [Mary Allan-Olney], New Virginians, I. 37. Called ‘baggage-smashers.’
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 June, 4/1. The Saratoga trunks are hurled recklessly by the ‘baggage smashers’ on to the deck of the little steamer.
