I’m working on translating the Ambition: Light Fingers storyline, and this word ‘cag-magger’ is exceptionally puzzling. I haven’t found any reliable definitions so far. Any ideas about it plz
Can you provide context? Specifically, is there anything preceding this term that includes a word that might be abbreviated to “cag”?
First searches suggest an (unlikely) abbreviation for cagoule, which is a type of anorak – the word is moving toward obsolete, though. It also appears as an alternate spelling of the first part of cack-handed. Both of these are primarily UK English.
Magger comes in with two meanings that seem unlikely due to the time frame of when this was written (abbreviation for MAGA adherent; slur against an aspect of Minecraft play), plus one that is rude (because it compares a person to the primitive Cro-Magnon humans: “cro-magger”, and one that is just nasty: “magger” = a sexual partner so unattractive that their face needs to be covered by a porn magazine during the act.
‘Cagmag’ appears to be 19th-century slang for something of poor quality, especially meat, so a ‘cag-magger’ is someone whose products or services are inferior, especially a butcher who sells poor meat.
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Oh Now I get it. I searched ‘cag’ and ‘mag’, but never considered ‘cagmag’. Thank you so much.
The full sentence is ‘a gin-raddled, rag-wrapped old cag-magger’. Both of us seem to be misleaded by the hyphen:) It turned out that ‘cag-magger’ is derived from the British slang ‘cagmag’(thanks to Diptych). Thank you for willing to help me anyway.
You’re welcome. It’s the kind of thing I spend a lot of time on in RL, so I can never resist the fun. Just sorry it proved to be entirely useless! (Except knowledge is never a waste…)
I should have realised that something like the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (Francis Grose, on Project Gutenberg) or James Redding Ware’s Dictionary of Victorian Slang (1909, in the Internet Archive) would be way more to the point. As one would actually expect from FL writers – more historically accurate, less influenced by modern usage.
We used to have someone else on here way back who was doing a comprehensive translation. If it’s not too much to ask: which language are you working into?
Chinese. I am far from a professional translator and I hardly have readers, but the process is surprisingly enjoyable.
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