Where does the word "lag" come from

[jjelibean]

I was reading the newspaper the other day and the headlines read "lags on strike" as in prisoners. Where does the word "lag" originate from?

[fredpuli47]

In the C16 one meaning of the verb 'to lag' was 'to steal'. It's possible that that led to the word being used for a prisoner in jail or a (habitual) criminal, but the Oxford English Dictionary only draws attention to those uses of 'lag' as noun and verb . It says that the origin of 'lag', the noun, which, by the early C19, meant 1) a term of imprisonment or transportation or 2) a convict or hardened or habitual prisoner, is unknown.