WOTD for Word Nerds, Smart Alecs and Wise Guys

8-14-23

togs

(n.) [tahgz] — (Cant^¹ and slang: earliest recorded use in 1708; in singular) a coat; any outer garment; see below cited use by J. H. Vaux Memoirs (1819); (2) (used in the plural) clothes (slang and humorously colloquial) (OED)

Just the other day, yesterday in fact, I had occasion to use the word “togs” in an idle conversation about I do not remember what. Unexpectedly yet not surprisingly, one of those present, truly one of my favorite people remaining on Earth, though not one who troubles herself over much with the sort of considerations addressed not infrequently in these posts, wondered aloud, first, “What did [I] say?” and then, “What are ‘togs’?”  I told her what I used the word to mean (See definition and usages below.), and we moved on.

The following morning, it occurred to me that since “togs” is not a word often heard in conversation even though it’s a little word and should be easy to remember and be one of the simple words that might have become among the words most commonly used, on the other hand, maybe not. Maybe this is one of those little words so adapted to slipping through the cracks of people’s awareness that more than a few people might not know what “togs” are or where they came from or even if the word has a useful singular form. So I decided to do some research and to report the results thereof very directly. Consequently, today’s WOTD will be “information rich,” so to speak. “Just (for the most part) the facts, m’am,” as Sgt. Friday was said to regularly say when television was in its youth.

The best guess about togs’s origin is that it is a shortened form of “togeman [a cloak or loose coat], used in Vagabonds’ Cant as early as the 16^th cent. Its currency in the 19^th cent. was no doubt aided by its obvious connection with toga.” But the word’s earliest printed citation in the OED is from a glossary of the cant [See note 1 below.] spoken by the denizens of the urban underworld:

1708       Togge, a Coat.²

Subsequent appearances in the 18^th century seem to convey a nearly identical meaning. The word in the plural—meaning simply “more than one coat”—appears in the journal of an early explorer of Canada, a man by the name of “J. Potts.”

1755       Having seriously considered all the consequences that may attend such a dangerous attempt as to send out 13 raw, undisciplined men without proper clothing in quest of the boy, Matthew Warden, having no beaver coats in the factory to make their togs, mittens nor caps, to send these people out to sea [actually, Hudson’s Bay] among the islands in search of the Esquimaux (perhaps there may be hundreds of them) and not one drop of fresh water to be got, nor wood to melt snow to quench their thirst and should they be all starved to death with cold; we then would have but myself and seven hands with the two boys to defend the fort. And if they should be conquered by the Esquimaux and they got all our people’s arms, if they with these arms, powder, ball, come and skulk about the fort for a few days behind the rocks, we in the fort would be dead for want of rest and fresh water. This morning I called a council and gave my opinion as above. [That is, he prudently cancelled the expedition.]³

WHADDAH FROGS GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Then just four years later, we find Josiah Wedgewood corresponding with a friend informing him of some steps he had taken in an attempt to amend the behavior of one of his sons who was proving hard to manage.

1779    We then took him again under our parental protection; provided him with a straight waistcoat, and whenever he wriggled or winched, drew it a hole tighter, and behaved so like a step-mother to our son, now grown a very tall boy, that he determined to strip off his waistcoat, and put on the togs at once, and is now actually carrying fire and water through the whole empire wherever he pleases.⁴

The context in Wedgewood’s letter doesn’t make it clear whether he intends togs to mean “coats” or “clothes” in general, which is indeed the meaning “togs” seems to have acquired around this time, and before 1790 when it is defined when “used in the plural [as] clothes (slang and humorously colloquial).”

1790    Toges or toggs, cloaths for both sexes.⁵

Nineteen years later, another dictionary of “slang and cant languages” was published with an entry on “Toggs” defining the word in the same way with an additional sense thrown in for good measure:  

1809   Toggs,—clothes. Also, Tatty tog—a gaming cloth, [presumably a cloth spread on a table or the floor to serve as a surface for a gambling game of cards or dice.]⁶

Interestingly the compiler of this dictionary, Georges Andrewes, in a sort of justification or apologetic explanation about why he’s even bothering about such disreputable Slang and Cant in the first place, introduces his dictionary with the following “Advertisement”:

   One great misfortune to which the Public are liable, is, that thieves have a Language of their own; by which means they associate together in the street without fear of being over-heard or understood.
   The principal end I had in view in publishing this Dictionary, was, to expose the Cant Terms of their Language, in order to the more easy detection of their crimes; and I flatter myself, by the perusal of this work, the Public will become acquainted with their mysterious Phrases; and better able to frustrate their designs.

Thus, we have yet another confirmation that language snobs have been around for a very long time, probably forever. But as for “togs,” by the 18-teens, both senses—coat and clothing—seem to occur regularly while the third—a gambling cloth—seems to fade a bit, just as the word very soon migrates with the pickpockets and petty thieves who seem to use it the most to Australia:⁷

1819   TOG, a coat; to tog, is to dress or put on clothes; to tog a person, is also to supply them with apparel, and they are said to be well or queerly tog’d, according to their appearance.
TOG’D OUT TO THE NINES, a fanciful phrase, meaning simply, that a person is well or gaily dressed.
TOGS or TOGGERY, wearing apparel in general.

By 1838 “togs” has made it into respectable middle-class fiction, some would say into “literature,” as Charles Dickens uses it in Oliver Twist, albeit in a snippet of dialogue spoken by a member of the very class which seems to have been responsible for coining the word in the first place.

1838    “Look at his togs, Fagin!” said Charley putting the light [candle] so close to his new jacket as nearly to set him on fire. “Look at his togs,—superfine cloth, and the heavy-swell cut! Oh, my eye, what a game! And his books, too; nothing but a gentleman, Fagin!”⁸

So today, as far as I know, “togs” refers in common parlance to clothes in general and retains its humorously colloquial tone, and I say kudos to togs for having been so consistent for so long. Not many words can say as much for having withstood the prevailing current of language change for centuries.

1. “The speech or phraseology of beggars, etc., and senses connected therewith,” [such as] “a whining manner of speaking, esp. of beggars’; a whine” and “the secret language or jargon used by gipsies, thieves, professional beggars, etc.; [and so] transferred, any jargon used for the purpose of secrecy” [including] “the special phraseology [used by] a particular class of persons, or belonging to a particular subject; professional or technical jargon. (Always depreciative or contemptuous.)

2. From “The Canter’s Expositor,” a glossary interposed within the Memoirs of the right villanous John Hall, the late famous and notorious robber, penn’d from his mouth some time before his death. Containing the Exact Life, and Character of a Thief in General. As also a lively Representation of Newgate; and its Inhabitants, with the Manners and Customs Observed there. The Nature and Means by which they commit their several Thefts and Robberies, and the Distinctions observed in their respective Functions. To which is added, the Cant generally us’d by those Sort [sic] of People to conceal their Villanies; and Rules to avoid being Robb’d or Cheated by them. Usefully set forth for the Good of the Publick, at the instance of many Honest People. (London: Printed, and Sold by Ben. Bragg at the Raven in Pater-Noster-Row, 1708), p. 23. See Memoirs of the right villanous John Hall, the late famous and notorious robber, penn'd from his mouth some time before his death. ... 1708 : Hall, John, Robber. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive for the complete memoir. The glossary is on pp. 20-23.

3. J. Potts’ Journal in Ray Price, The Howling Arctic: The Remarkable People Who Made Canada Sovereign in the Farthest North (Toronto: Peter Martin Associates Ltd., 1970), Chap. i., p. 16. See The howling Arctic : the remarkable people who made Canada sovereign in the farthest North : Price, Ray, 1931- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive for the complete cited work. You’ll need to register (free) with the Internet Archive to borrow this book for an hour at a time.

4. Josiah Wedgwood, in The Selected Letters of Josiah Wedgewood [Edited by Ann Finer and George Savage] (London: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1965) as noted used this word in one of his letters to a Mr. Bentley, whom he addresses, on May 9, 1779 as “My dear friend.” This letter appears on pp. 232-233 of the cited book. This is the same Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795) responsible for founding the Wedgewood pottery brand and business. See Josiah Wedgwood - Wikipedia for more on this gentleman active in England and writing letters, as here referenced, before and during the American Revolution.

5. Humphrey Tristram Potter, A New Dictionary of all the Cant & Flash Languages both Ancient and Modern, used by Gipsies, Beggars, Swindlers, Shoplifters, Peterers, Starrers, Footpads, Highwaymen, Sharpers and every class of offenders from a Lully Prigger to a High Tober Gloak. Carefully arranged and selected from the most approved authors, and from the Manuscripts of Jonathan Wild, Baxter, and Others. Dedicated to the late Sir Sampson Wright, Knt. By Humphrey Tristram Potter, Attorney at Law, Deceased. (Printed and Corrected by W. Mackintosh, and Sold by J. Downes, No. 240, Temple Bar, London), p. 59. See A new dictionary of all the cant and flash languages, both ancient and modern; used by gipsies, beggars, swindlers, shoplifters. Dedicated to the late Sir Sampson Wright, Knt. by Humphry Tristram Potter. 1795 : Potter, Humphry Tristram : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive for more words from the speakers of such lingo described and defined by Mr. Potter.

6. George Andrewes, A Dictionary of the Slang and Cant Languages: Ancient and Modern. As used by Adam Tylers, Badgers, Bullies, Bully-Huffs, Bully Rocks, Bloods, Buffers, Boxers, Beau-Traps, Cloak-Twitchers, Clapperdogeons, Coiners, Cadgers, Duffers, Divers, Dragsmen, Filers, Fencers, Footpads, Gammoners, Gypsies, Ginglers, Kencrackers, Knackers, Lully-Priggers, Money-Lenders, Millers, Priggers, Rum-Padders, Strollers, Sweeteners, Spicers, Shoplifters, Smashers, Swindlers, Swadlers, Whidlers, Water-pads, and EVERY CLASS OF OFFENDERS. By George Andrewes, author of The Frauds of London (London: Published by George Smeeton, 18, James-Street, Covent-Garden, 1809). These “Toggs” entries to be found under “T” in Andrewes’s  dictionary/glossary. See A Dictionary of the Slang and Cant Languages: ancient and modern, as used b... - Google Books for the complete short book.

7. James Hardy Vaux, A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language. Compiled and Written by James Hardy Vaux, and published as an addendum to Volume II, pp. 147-227, of Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux, written by himself, in Two Volumes (London: Printed by W. Clowes, Northumberland-Court, Strand and sold by all respectable booksellers. 1819), p. 219.  See A Vocabulary Of Flash Language From Memoirs Of James Hardy Vaux, 1819 : James Hardy Vaux : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive for this portion of Vaux’s memoirs originally published in 1812, which is a very interesting compilation complete with explanation and brief commentary of many of the entries.

His Memoirs include very interesting accounts of Vaux’s life among the petty criminals of London some of whom like himself were transported to Australia. “Vaux,” as Wikipedia informs us, “(born 1782, living 1841, date of death unknown) was an English-born convict transported to Australia on three separate occasions. He was the author of Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux including A Vocabulary of the Flash Language [as above], first published in 1819, which is regarded as both the first full length autobiography and first dictionary written in Australia.”

“Togs” also appears in the English spoken colloquially today in Australia and New Zealand and means “a swimming costume or bathing trunks,” which item is also called “il costume da bagno” or just “il costume” in Italian.

8. Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist. Vol. I [Works of Charles Dickens, Household Edition] (New York: James G. Gregory, Publisher, 46 Walker Street, 1861), Chap. xvi., p. 178.