Toerag - what's the origin?

r3nu4l · 07-03-2007 01:46PM #1

I've not done any research into this but what is the origin of the word 'toerag'?

It seems to my mind/imagination that [pure speculation]it could be a reference to the financially impoverished. I imagine that these people had no shoes and that their socks were mere rags or full of holes and through which their toes could be seen, hence toerag[/pure speculation]

Is that in any way right?

petes · 07-03-2007 01:50PM

Etymology: 19c: originally meaning ‘beggar', from the rags wrapped around beggars' feet and worn inside the shoes in place of socks.

I was bored.

r3nu4l · 07-03-2007 02:03PM

Wow, not bad on my part, almost there

/slaps self on back

Thanks petes, I was thinking 19c when I was writing the post. I'm a Dickens fan.

I would imagine that even then the term was a derogatory one? In Dickens' work he often highlights the social unfairness of the upper classes towards those in lower classes and 'toerag' seems like something that may have always been derogatory and perhaps first conceived as an abusive term. Anyone have any more info?

Talliesin · 09-03-2007 05:33PM

r3nu4l wrote:

I would imagine that even then the term was a derogatory one?

It identifies them by a feature that is an indicator of their poverty.

Indirect identifiers such as these are rarely neutral, and since poverty is something rarely looked up to (with some religion-based exceptions) it was probably always derogatory as you say.

r3nu4l · 09-03-2007 05:57PM

Talliesin wrote:

Indirect identifiers such as these are rarely neutral, and since poverty is something rarely looked up to (with some religion-based exceptions) it was probably always derogatory as you say.

The cruelty of man and all that

Thanks guys!

Toerag - what's the origin?

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