Shaggy

How to spell shaggy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shaggy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shaggy mean?

1. adjectiveHaving long, rough, untidy hair, fur, or fibres.

Shaggy in a sentence

• The shaggy sheepdog needed a good brush after the muddy walk.

• A thick shaggy rug covered the cold bedroom floor.

Where does shaggy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the noun 'shag', which in Old English appeared as 'sceacga', meaning a rough mass of hair or a tangle of bristly growth. That older form is related to Old Norse 'skegg', meaning 'beard', pointing back to a shared Germanic sense of something that sticks out roughly. By the late 1500s English speakers added the common adjective ending '-y' to make 'shaggy', describing anything covered in long, coarse, untidy hair. The sense broadened over time to cover not just animals and beards but rugs, carpets, and even loosely growing plants. The single trap in the spelling is the doubled 'g', which is needed because the short 'a' vowel must be kept short before the '-y' ending.

How the word is built

• shag (rough matted hair)
• -y (adjective suffix)