From Wikipedia:
As a political term, Tory was an insult (derived from the Middle Irish word tóraidhe, modern Irish tóraÃ, meaning "outlaw", "robber", from the Irish word tóir, meaning "pursuit" since outlaws were "pursued men")[5][6] that entered English politics during the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678—1681.
I have seen it said that the description ‘toe-rag' has the same etymology. That's not commonly suggested. I can easily see that it is possible, especially given the use made of it in Scotland.
Who would have thought it?
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This post got me thinking about our predicaments.
It’s obvious to me that people just don’t go and look anymore, do they?
OK – they might be too busy living a full life, or morel likely wasting time on social media or following celebrities or creating false enemies (the EU) – but how else are we going to topple the faulty narratives that dominate our lives like Thatcher’s ‘there’s no such thing as Government money’ without …..well……reading more?
The ‘mass distraction economy’ we live in keeps us enslaved.
It’s going to be a long haul into the light methinks.
The Toerag Party, how very apt.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/toerag.
There is other etymology available, as they say on the BBC
Aha, I noticed you made a comment a while ago referring to this Richard, and I had meant to ask then if you’d made it up or if it was true – so it’s good to find out it’s a possibility. Haha, very apt, Tory, toe-rag, outlaw, charlatan.
Other etymologies may be available, but we all know this is the right one.
I think the term re Tory is spot on
Toe-rag I accept has many theories attached to it
Well, the OED agrees that the term “Tory” is an “Anglicized spelling of Irish *tóraidhe, -aighe /tÉ”Ërije/ ‘pursuer’ ” and it records the meanings evolving from “In the 17th cent., one of the dispossessed Irish, who became outlaws, subsisting by plundering and killing the English settlers and soldiers… later, often applied to any Irish Papist or Royalist in arms” through “A nickname given 1679—80 … to those who opposed the exclusion of James, Duke of York (a Roman Catholic) from the succession to the Crown” to the political party which “sprang from the 17th-century Royalists or Cavaliers, and its members at first were more or less identical with the Anti-Exclusionists or ‘Tories’ in [that] sense”
In essence, it is an anti-Irish and anti-Catholic slur, implying they are all violent robbers, murderers and outlaws. Perhaps a 17th/18th century version of reclaiming a derogatory term.
The earliest citations for “toe-rag” suggest it was used first in the 19th century for a foot cloth (“A rag wrapped round the foot and worn inside a shoe, in place of a sock”) and then extended attributively to the tramps or vagrants who wore them. Who claims it comes from the same Irish origin as “Tory” and what is the evidence?
That suggestion comes from Scotland and suggests a variation ion the same Gaelic etymology for Tory
But I stress, it’s not as clear…and I know it
We can speculate that there may have parallel derivations in England and Scotland but it would be nice to see some evidence. The word “toe-rag” has been used to refer to the foot cloth since at least the 1860s (in a book about a convict’s experiences in Australia) and attributively to vagrants since the 1870s; so what is the earliest citation for this use in Scotland?
It is occasionally suggested is that it comes from “tuareg”, brought back from the middle east by servicemen after the second world war, but that seems unlikely. And apparently “toe-rag” refers to salt cod in some dialects.
As I have noted – pretty diverse, this one
Tory is not
As ‘torai’ they would have operated ‘beyond the pale’, to use another expression that is Irish in origin.
That certainly applies to todays Tories…
Agreed
This is what my east end and very socialist grandfather told me many years ago
Tory was a common working class insult in the 18th 19th and even early 20th century. It was used like crook.
If you went to buy something and you felt the shop keeper was over charging you’d call it daylight robbery and you might say “you’re a bloody Tory you are!” To him. Or a dad might say it to his kid who hit him up for some money. It was anti-Irish anti-gypsy in its connotations but was in the vernacular.
The new capitalist right wing MPs were called it by the liberals and whigs and mainstream press, so they adopted it much like brexiteers today. Politics were far more bawdy in those days and many of the Tory arguments suited the new young capitalists who had risen from the artisan class.
I don’t think they adopted conservative till well into Victoriana when the rise of socialism was threatening to supersede they’re views on the economy, however when they began they were a shock to the upper classes promising as they did to make more rich men from lower society
That fits with much of what I have read
I was under the impression that the term is “tow rag”, a naval term describing the nautical predecessor of toilet paper, towed behind on a rope and cleaned by saltwater.
I know of that variant as well
This one is pretty diverse
There is a Tory Island of the coast of Donegal. Seems to not have same connotations and looks quite nice, if a bit rugged.
The Tories don’t like being called Tories much, probably because some of them know the name derives from robbers and thieving thugs. Seems rather apt imo.