Green’s Dictionary of Slang

snags n.

(Aus./N.Z.) sausages; rarely used in sing.

1937		Western Mail (Perth) 14 Oct. 48/5: ‘Snag’ is a bushman’s name for sausage.
1938		Western Mail (Perth) 30 June 34/2: I bought some snaggers — bush lingo for growlers or sausages.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 10 June [synd. cartoon strip] Tell his reverence there’s loop the loop, snags and mud balls, strike me dead, slip in the gutter and Chinese comfort fund. The cook said there’s soup, sausages and potatoes, bread and butter and rice.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 80: For sausages we can offer a selection of terms—snags, snaggles, snorks, snorkers and bangers.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 33: ‘I know. Let’s have sausages.’ The tension in Mumma’s housewifely heart disappeared. Good old snags. They were always there to be fallen back on.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 198: ‘Oh, God!’ Charlesworth cried suddenly. ‘The snags!’ Before he went up to the mess to plate the meat, he had put a tray of breakfast sausages into the oven and had forgotten them. [Ibid.] 199: Give him a hand to open up some more snaggers.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 92: Jean asked me to get some snags an’ onions for the Old Man.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 4: He held out the parcel. ‘There’s snags and a couple of chops. Stick it in your bag and I’ll do the baker.’.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 52: Only snags for tea and a nice half cauli.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 58: Mrs Foster and Shirl sit down and start flapping their gums, and Jason .is left in charge of cooking the snaggers.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 63: Palmer said I had eaten the lot. Well, there would have been 60 sausages and I was supposed to have eaten all of them. I love a snag but that’s ridiculous.
2004		T. Winton ‘Long, Clear View’ in Turning (2005) 197: The air is blue with barbecue smoke, the old man flips snags and chops.
2012		Twitter 19 Jan. 🌐 In Melbourne a sausage sandwich is a snag sanger. Wonder is sanger derives from sangwich?
2016		Guardian Culture 14 Dec. 🌐 The barbecued snag, bought at a polling booth sausage sizzle on election day, beat out ‘smashed avo’ and ‘census fail’ to define the year.
2019		P. Temple ‘High Art’ in The Red Hand 46: ‘A sausage [...] Can’t get a decent snag any more’.

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