the.com/mag
A magazine, minus the syllables you didn't have time for anyway.
means A casual, clipped way of saying 'magazine' — the publication you flip through, not the storage clip or the shopping arcade.
from Simply a shortening of 'magazine,' which itself traveled a longer road — from Arabic 'makhzan' (storehouse), through French 'magasin,' into English first meaning a storage place (especially for ammunition, which is why gun magazines share the name). The periodical sense arose because early magazines billed themselves as a 'storehouse' of information and entertainment. 'Mag' just sheared off the extra syllables once the word got comfortable.
- gun sense
- short for magazine, the ammo-feeding clip
- print sense
- short for magazine, the glossy kind
- etymology link
- both trace to arabic makhazin, meaning storehouses
- usage era
- clipped form popularized by casual 20th century slang