A person who collects or distributes money illegally, especially bribes or payoffs; also historically a traveling salesman.
Compound of 'bag' and 'man,' originally meaning a salesman who carried a bag of samples. By the 1900s, it took on a criminal meaning of someone collecting 'bags' of money for corruption.
The same word shifted from respectable traveling salesman to criminal informant—probably because both carried bags everywhere, but the criminal version stuck in popular imagination through noir films.
Bagman historically defaulted to male reference due to male dominance in commerce and organized crime. Modern usage rarely specifies gender, but the term carries implicit masculine default from 20th-century underworld slang.
Bagperson or bagoperative are more neutral, though context determines necessity—use gender-neutral terms when referring to roles without confirmed gender.
["bagperson","courier","operative"]
Women have participated in commerce and logistics since antiquity; language should reflect contemporary reality that financial and courier roles are gender-diverse.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.