phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Tuareg

Posted by Wes on September 19, 2003

In Reply to: Tuareg posted by Brian from Shawnee on September 05, 2003

To the mindless Toe Rag
You need to do a little more study!
Interesting concept but the Tuareg/Touareg are nomadic herders that occupy the Saharah and Sahel regions of North and West Africa from Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Niger etc.. They are the cause of numerous rebellions in different countries as they commonly feel persecuted or ignored by more static goverments. The name is one that is given to them based from Arabic similar to the name Gypsy. It means "cast out by god" altough in thier own language Tamashek they prefer to be called Imasharen or free people.

: : : MINDLESS TOE RAGS -- "LONDON, England -- The steam train used in the Harry Potter films has been damaged by paint-wielding vandals, police said . . . James Shuttleworth, from the West Coast Railway Company which operates the train, said the graffiti was 'heartbreaking.' 'The people who did this are mindless toe rags,' he said. 'This will horrify the millions of Harry Potter fans.'" From "Vandals damage Hogwarts Express," Thursday, September 4, 2003.

: : : TOERAG - noun, British. "a contemptible person, a scrounger, ne'er-do-well, tramp or thief. Toe-rags were the bindings wound around the feet of convicts or tramps in the 19th century. The word had taken on its present meaning by early in the 20th century in both Britain and Australia. During the 1950s and 1960s toerag was an obscure cockney term; it was given wider currency in the 1970s by TV programmes such as 'The Sweeney' and the pop songs of Ian Dury. From the mid-1980s it has been revived by working-class Londoners. In Britain toerag is often used factiously or slightly dismissively, in Australia it can sometimes indicate approval of one who acts like a (natural, rather than social) gentlemen." From the "Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (Pantheon Books, New York, 1990).

: : Not quite an anagram of Socrates, "scrotes" can be used somewhat interchangeably with "toerags" - obviously it refers to scrotum - and it has a dismissive nuance about it that makes it entirely suitable to refer to petty criminals, vandals and ne'er-do-well's. Perhaps it's origin lies in the undropped testicles of a male adolescent, but in the same way that a "toe-rag" is a worthless individual, a "scrote" is an annoying and immature male of the same ilk.

: The word is virtually unknown here in the U.S., so Volkswagen has confidently called their new sport utility vehicle the Tuareg in this country. I associated Tuareg with Toerag the first time I heard it, even though I had no clear definition for Toerag, but I knew it wasn't good. What do they call it in the U.K., I wonder?

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.