What Does "The Wagger" Mean Anyway?

Wagger is a term used by print journalists to describe a writer. Not sure why, but writers for newspapers have been nicknamed Waggers long before I ever started working as a print journalist, which was in 1994 (I can't believe it's been that long).

An old editor of mine named Ted Natt, whom I worked for at the now-defunct Sandhills Business Times (too bad 'cause it was a great newspaper), had the e-mail address anoldwag@ ...

When I originally launched The Wagger I intended to include original news stories, but it hasn't worked out that way. Hopefully sometime in the near future that will change and I'll start publishing original feature stories about Phish on this Blog. Keep your fingers crossed.

Here are the more homogenized definitions of Wagger from the dictionary ...

11 Dictionary.com results for: wag

1.	to move from side to side, forward and backward, or up and down, esp. rapidly and repeatedly: a dog wagging its tail.

2.	to move (the tongue), as in idle or indiscreet chatter.

3.	to shake (a finger) at someone, as in reproach.

4.	to move or nod (the head).

–verb (used without object)

5.	to be moved from side to side or one way and the other, esp. rapidly and repeatedly, as the head or the tail.

6.	to move constantly, esp. in idle or indiscreet chatter: Her behavior caused local tongues to wag.

7.	to get along; travel; proceed: Let the world wag how it will.

8.	to totter or sway.

9.	British Slang. to play truant; play hooky.

–noun

10.	the act of wagging: a friendly wag of the tail.

11.	a person given to droll, roguish, or mischievous humor; wit.

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[Origin: 1175–1225; ME waggen <>vaga to sway, or vagga cradle]

—Related forms

wagger, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.