From Middle English segge, from Old English seċġ (“man, warrior, hero”), from Proto-West Germanic *sagi, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaz (“follower, retainer, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow, accompany”). Cognate with Norwegian segg, Icelandic seggur (“bully”).
[…] when a prisoner is transferred or paroled or sent to "seg" (segregation) or hauled back into court, they don't ask if he's busy with a lead role in a play. 1988 July 15, Albert Williams, “Prison Drama”, in Chicago Reader:
It's also believed that anyone who bites a seg will develop an impediment of speech, such as a stammer. 2019, Roy Vickery, Vickery's Folk Flora, page lxxiii:
Boats were made of wood, paper or segs (the leaves of the yellow flag). For some reason, children in Stenness (O) were warned that if they chewed seg leaves they would become dumb. 2020, Ernest Marwick, The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland:
In one district of Stronsa, I observed several acres covered with the common yellow flag, or seg (iris pseudacorus,) of which a very coarse kind of hay is here made. 1805 January, “Observations made in a Tour through parts of Orkney and Shetland in 1894”, in The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany, volume 67, number 1, page 26:
In 1992, Mort's doing a political/chat show for the Christian Scientists Monitor Channel, and in January did a seg singing praises for Garrison. 1992 February 2, Mitzel, “Clay Shaw, The Quean Network & That Kennedy Killing”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 28, page 12:
The usual partisanship for bankrollers of radio segs is shown on TV stations. 1951 December 15, Billboard, page 6: