Word Origins

Origin of toffee-nosed?

I'd love to know...

peterparker Fri 22/08/08 20:08

<< Previous

Next >>

Subscribe to question

Post an Answer

Quizmonster
Sat 23/08/08
08:03

In a 1943 dictionary of Services' slang, the word was listed as being especially used by WAAFs, members of the women's branch of the RAF.
The idea behind it is that anyone who was toffee-nosed was someone who held her nose in the air in an attempt to keep it away from her mouth...the place where toffee would go. We find the same concept in the phrase looking down your nose at people. Both clearly suggest that the person considers herself a cut above her colleagues.

camioneur
Thurs 11/09/08
08:52

Wealthy types of the 19th century were known as toffs, who turned up their "toff noses" at the lower classes.

This sounds more plausible to me. I pinched it straight from Google

camioneur
Thurs 11/09/08
08:59

It would be a very neat trick if you increase the distance from your nose to your mouth by holding your nose in the air. What a load of tosh!

fredpuli47
Thurs 11/09/08
16:58

'Toff' in the C19 meant " a well-dressed or smart person; someone of wealth or social standing" according to the O.E.D., which says that, perhaps, the word is a variant of tuft. 'Tuft' once specifically referred to the gold tassle on the caps of aristocrats at Oxford University.

Toffy sounds like an adjective formed from 'toff' and meaning 'like or pertaining to a toff'. Toffee, the noun, was once also spelt 'toffy' It seems plausible that we have confused 'toffee' the noun for the confectionery, with 'toffy', an adjective now forgotten.

'To have one's nose in the air' is a common expression for 'to act as though superior to others'. We might say that a person doing so was 'snooty' . In the C19,'snoot' was a colloquial word for a person's nose. The nose seems to 'feature' in such words and sayings :)

Post an Answer

Submit the above question and answers

add to del.icio.us	add to digg	add to furl
add to reddit	add to Technorati	add to Blinklist
add to StumbleUpon	add to squidoo	add to ma.gnolia
add to Cocomment	add to Netscape	add to Fark