toerag

[prettygoodword]

toerag (TOH-rag) - (UK) n., a worthless and contemptable person.


This one confused me until I learned it originally (in the early 20th century) meant a vagrant/tramp, from cloths wrapped around the feet in place of socks or shoes. So the emphasis here is often on the worthless part. (Dictionaries are claiming this is just British -- if anyone knows of it used in other dialects, please shout out.)

---L.

Comments

[conuly]

I've only seen it in HP fanfics and possibly in the original books, but I don't recall it there. So that's a datapoint towards it being distinctly British.

[prettygoodword]

I've seen in salty Reddit posts from obvious Brits, when localizable usually to England. I can't recall whether any Aussies have used it, though.

[augustcore]

The only place I've ever heard this is in Doctor Who: the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace used it on a few occasions. When I was younger I thought the writers must have made it up for the show.

[prettygoodword]

Ha!

[med_cat]

Interesting origin. They used cloths and not socks in the poorer groups in Russia too, 19th and I'm sure early 20th century

[prettygoodword]

In central/western Europe, too.

[med_cat]

I see