bagsy me

[mindbullets]

where does bagsy come from ?please

[Hippy]

The verb "to bag" means to succeed in killing a game bird and add the new one to one's bag'; also to seize, catch; steal, or appropriate. Hunters carried a bag to hold the dead birds that they shot, and it is from this that the term derives.

[Quizmonster]

'Bags I/bagsy me' and similar phrases are a formula created by children to stake a claim to something. The phrase first appeared in print in a book by A Dobson published in 1866 as follows:

"Deep in a hole gleamed the clear water of a shallow well. 'Bags I first drink', says Bob, according to the polite practice of schoolboys."

Given that the writer refers to a 'practice', it is clear that the phrase had existed in speech - probably in public schools - prior to that date.