flag

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A piece of cloth with a design that represents a country, group, or idea.

   The flag of France has three vertical stripes.

2. 2
   verb

   To mark something so that people will notice it or pay attention to it.

   Please flag any mistakes you find in the report.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Flag has several origins. The medieval word for a stone slab, first recorded for a piece of cut turf, may be Scandinavian and related to flaw through the shared notion of a detached portion. The flag used as an emblem appeared in the mid-16th century and may imitate something flapping in the wind or be related to an obsolete flag meaning “hang down.” The verb meaning “become tired,” also from the mid-16th century, is probably related to the emblem word and originally meant “flap loosely” or “hang down.”

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compar…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary