Toff

In British English slang, a toff is a derogatory stereotype for someone with an aristocratic background or belonging to the landed gentry, particularly someone who exudes an air of superiority. For instance, the Toff, a character from the series of adventure novels by John Creasey, is an upper class crime sleuth who uses a common caricature of a toff – a line drawing with a top hat, monocle, bow-tie and cigarette with a holder – as his calling card.

Hoorah Henry has a similar meaning.

Etymology

The word "toff" is thought to come from the word "tuft", which was a gold tassel worn by titled undergraduates at the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge.[1][2][3][4][5] The Anglo-Saxon word "toforan" has a meaning of "superiority".[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford 1969
  2. ↑ "toff". Online Etymology Dictionary.
  3. ↑ "toff". The Free Dictionary.
  4. ↑ "toff". WordReference.com.
  5. ↑ "toff". Dictionary.com.
  6. ↑ Albert Jack. (2011.) It's a Wonderful Word: The Real Origins of Our Favourite Words, Random House, p. 151.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.