Baggy

How to spell baggy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce baggy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does baggy mean?

1. adjectiveLoose and hanging in folds, especially of clothing that does not fit closely.

Baggy in a sentence

• He wore a pair of baggy jeans to the weekend market.

• The old jumper had gone baggy at the elbows after years of wear.

Where does baggy come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word is built directly on the everyday noun 'bag', which English took from the Old Norse 'baggi', a word for a pack or bundle that Norse settlers brought to Britain. The adjective form appeared in the early 1800s by adding the suffix '-y', which turns a noun into an adjective meaning 'resembling' or 'full of' the thing named, so 'baggy' literally means 'resembling a bag'. Because the root word ends in a single short vowel followed by a single consonant, the 'g' is doubled before the suffix, which is the same rule that produces 'foggy' from 'fog' and 'soggy' from 'sog'; that doubling is the main thing to remember when spelling it. The sense settled quickly on loose, ill-fitting clothing that hangs in folds like an empty sack. The same humble Norse root also gave us 'baggage' and the verb 'to bag', so the family is large and familiar.

How the word is built

• bag (sack, from Old Norse baggi)
• -g- (doubled consonant)
• -y (adjective suffix)