Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TAG, n.²

A play in which the person gains who tags, that is, touches another. This was a common sport among boys in Connecticut formerly, and it may be still. The word is inserted here for the sake of the evidence it affords of the affinity of languages, and of the original orthography of the Latin tango, to touch, which was tago. This vulgar tag is the same word; the primitive word retained by the common people. It is used also as a verb, to tag. [See Touch.]