Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SHAG, n. [Sax. sceacga, hair, shag; Dan. skiæg; Sw. skägg, the beard, a brush, &c. In Eth. ሠቅ shaky, a hair cloth.]

1. Coarse hair or nap, or rough woolly hair. True Witney broadcloth, with its shag unshorn. – Gay.
2. A kind of cloth having a long coarse nap.
3. In ornithology, an aquatic fowl, the Pelecanus graculus; in the north of England called the crave. – Encyc. Ed. Encyc.