Possibly borrowed from Scots stravaig (“(verb) to wander idly, roam; to traverse; (noun) roaming about; casual ramble, stroll”), probably an aphetic form of English extravage (“(obsolete, rare) to go beyond the scope of something, digress; to talk wildly, ramble”), influenced by Scots vaig (“to wander idly, roam”). Extravage is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin extrāvagārī (“to stray outside limits, wander”) (whence extravagate), from Latin extrā (“beyond, outside of”, preposition) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs (“out”)) + vagārī (the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, roam, stroll about, wander”), from vagus (“rambling, roaming, strolling, wandering”) (further etymology uncertain) + -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs))).
[I]n them days, you see the people used to be hanged outside o' the town, […] [I]n them days they did not attind to the comforts o' the people at all, but put them into a cart, all as one as a conthrairy pig goin' to the market, and stravaiged them through the town to the gallows, that was full half a mile beyant it; […][1834, Samuel Lover, “The Curse of Kishogue”, in Legends and Stories of Ireland (Second Series), London: Baldwin and Cradock, […]; and sold by W. F. Wakeman, […], →OCLC, page 314:
Innes, stravaiging the square and wynds in his apple-cart, jingled his weights in vain, unable to shake even moneyed children off their stools; […]1896, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “End of the Jacobite Rising”, in Sentimental Tommy: The Story of His Boyhood, London; Paris: Cassell and Company […], →OCLC, page 341:
2 more examples
That I should live to see the time when me only daughter stravages the roads and hides behind stones in the night with a soldier!1949, Drayton Mayrant, chapter 3, in The Running Thread, New York, N.Y.: Appleton-Century-Crofts, →OCLC, page 22:
In a way perhaps it's a pity, a good woman might have been the making of me, I might be sprawling in the sun now sucking my pipe and patting the bottoms of the third and fourth generation, looked up to and respected, wondering what there was for dinner, instead of stravaging the same old roads in all weathers, I was never much of a one for new ground.c. 1954–1955 (date written; first published 1958), Samuel Beckett, “From an Abandoned Work”, in No’s Knife: Collected Shorter Prose 1945–1966, London: Calder and Boyars, published 1967, →OCLC, page 142:
Dear gudeman, what has put it i'your head that our bairn stravaigs i'the night-time?1818, James Hogg, chapter I, in The Brownie of Bodsbeck; and Other Tales. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 7:
Would you have an old woman like me stravaiging about the shore by myself?1871, William Black, “Touching Certain Problems”, in A Daughter of Heth. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 85:
4 more examples
[A] real lady like you wouldn't go prying into what she's no call to, like that fine decked-out body, Duncombe's wife, which had best mind her own children, which it is a shame to see stravaging about the place!1876, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “The Drive to Backsworth”, in The Three Brides. […], volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 279:
Whenever we came to any habitations now he would not call at back doors, nor go stravaiging in yards for odd pieces to eat, but he would go gallantly into an inn and offer his payment for the things we would like.1921 March 9, A[lfred] E[dgar] Coppard, “Marching to Zion”, in Adam & Eve & Pinch Me: Tales, Waltham Saint Lawrence, Berkshire: The Golden Cockerel Press; London: Birrell and Garnett, →OCLC, page 12:
'Are your grandchildren well?' / 'They are,' said Connor gloomily, 'but they're very bashful. And they do be stravaiging about always and not contented at all. They are a great distress to herself, and she unable to come out after them.'1929, Elizabeth Bowen, chapter VIII, in The Last September, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1960, →OCLC, part 1 (The Arrival of Mr. & Mrs. Montmorency), page 91:
It is tedious work, training clematis over low posts, so that its beauty does not stravaig up the walls but lies open under the eye; but on the edge of the town many gardeners grew it thus.1946, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], “Greenhouse with Cyclamens I”, in A Train of Powder, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, published March 1955, →OCLC, section 1, page 22:
Down the main street goes the road, but a path stravaiges by fields and along the grey palings of Warren Manor.1928, C[atherine] A[my] Dawson Scott, Oh! Foolish Kitty, London: Selwyn & Blount, →OCLC, pages 164–165:
Possibly borrowed from Scots stravaig (“(verb) to wander idly, roam; to traverse; (noun) roaming about; casual ramble, stroll”), probably an aphetic form of English extravage (“(obsolete, rare) to go beyond the scope of something, digress; to talk wildly, ramble”), influenced by Scots vaig (“to wander idly, roam”). Extravage is a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin extrāvagārī (“to stray outside limits, wander”) (whence extravagate), from Latin extrā (“beyond, outside of”, preposition) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs (“out”)) + vagārī (the present active infinitive of vagor (“to ramble, roam, stroll about, wander”), from vagus (“rambling, roaming, strolling, wandering”) (further etymology uncertain) + -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs))).
They cursed, they swore, they drank, they danced, they fought—first wi' whatever folk happened to fa' in wi' them on the stravaig—and then, castin' out amang theirsells, wi' ane anither, till they had a' three black een—and siccan noses!1834 July, [John Wilson], “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. LXVI.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXVI, number CCXXIV, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 145:
There's passages pretty near all under and round this city, to them who knows them. I've gone a dark stravage into pretty near every one first and last.1935, John Masefield, chapter III, in The Box of Delights: Or When the Wolves were Running, London: William Heinemann, published 1964, →OCLC, page 75:
1 more example
Our stravaig around Skye's Norse and Gaelic hills could end with a consideration of one of the Cuillins' finest peaks, Sgùrr nan Gillean, a saw-toothed array of rock spires, known as Pinnacle Ridge, leading to a sharp point, highlight of the view from Sligachan.1991, Peter Drummond, with assistance from Donald William Stewart, “Island Hills: The Main Peaks of Scotland’s Islands”, in Scottish Hill and Mountain Names: The Origin and Meaning of the Names of Scotland’s Hills and Mountains, Glasgow: Scottish Mountaineering Trust, →ISBN, page 155: