Spot the Frippet: swag.

A thief's takings are called swag:


illustration by mcol

and so, in Australia and New Zealand, is the pack carried by a travelling workman.

A water-filled depression cause by subsidence over a mine is a swag, and so is a deliberately droopy bit of curtain:


these, amazingly, were carved in wood by the furniture company Chippendale. Photo by Ivorpics

A festoon of flowers is a swag, too:


painting by Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger

So what's the connection between all those?

Spot the Frippet: swag. This word appeared in the 1600s, perhaps from Scandinavia. The Norwegian svagga means to sway.