Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Swag (slang)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. JohnCD (talk) 22:35, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

Swag (slang)

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Contested PROD. Wikipedia is not a dictionary. The 2 sources give nothing beyond the definition & entymology of the word. The claims of it being used as a slang term in hip-hop are unsourced, and it would be difficult to show that mere use of a (fairly common) word in a few songs makes that word notable enough for an encyclopedia article. Since we are not a dictionary, our articles are about things, not about words. IllaZilla (talk) 09:07, 17 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete slang dicdef. Andrew Lenahan -  St ar bli nd  18:05, 17 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete. Per Killa IllaZilla, though Starblind's kinda vanilla. Drmies (talk) 04:10, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions.  -- • Gene93k (talk) 15:21, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Delete as dicdef. As an aside, the etymology as given in the article is a bit misleading - the "Scandinavian" (actually dialectal Norwegian) word svagga is believed to have been borrowed into Middle English which means that we would have quite a gap between the borrowing and the emergence of the slang term in the 2010s - hardly a useful etymology! And in addition, historical linguists are not certain that the words svagga and sway are in fact cognates - the source sounds very certain about it, but most experts in the field (of whom I'm not one) are not quite as certain. The article also says that the word "originally implied looting" which sounds very doubtful indeed to me (and can't be inferred from what the source says). --bonadea contributions talk 17:42, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * To add to the aside, I mentioned earlier it being a fairly common term. I've heard it used (and used it) since the mid-'90s in reference to loot/merchandise ie. the merchandise one buys/collects at Warped Tour or Comic-Con. In fact these events often hand out what are commonly referred to as "swag bags" for attendees to carry around all their loot. So it's certainly not a 2010s slang term, its use as slang has been around long before, and according to the source its use in reference to "cheap and tawdry prizes" may date all the way back to the late-19th century. But again, this is all dicdef/entymology & belongs in a dictionary, not an encyclopedia. --IllaZilla (talk) 19:15, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.