Past tense of peg; to fasten something with a peg or to identify and categorize someone or something.
From Middle Dutch 'pegge' or Old Norse 'peggr' (peg, bolt). Extended meaning of 'to categorize' came later, from the idea of pinning something down.
When we say someone is 'pegged as' something, we're using the original meaning—literally pinning them down to a category, like pinning fabric with a peg. The metaphor lives in modern speech.
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