Tory
J Cheung
How did it originate?
John
Matti Lamprhey
news:9fqlcn$lfv$1...@violet.singnet.com.sg...
> I find it a bit funny, this nickname for the British Conservative Party.
> How did it originate?
Originally it denoted a member of the English political party opposing the
exclusion of James II from the succession. It remained the name for
members of the English, later British, parliamentary party supporting the
established religious and political order until the emergence of the
Conservative Party in the 1830s.
The name comes (in the mid 17th century, denoting Irish peasants
dispossessed by English settlers and living as robbers) from Irish
_toraidhe_ 'outlaw, highwayman', from _tóir_, 'pursue'; it was then
extended to other marauders especially in the Scottish Highlands. It was
then adopted c.1679 as an abusive nickname for supporters of the Catholic
James, Duke of York, later James II.
(Info from Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable)
Matti
Martin Ambuhl
>
> I find it a bit funny, this nickname for the British Conservative Party.
> How did it originate?
COD10 s.v. Tory:
[Origin] C17 (first used of Irish peasants dispossessed by
English settlers and living as robbers and extended to other
marauders, especially in the Scottish Highlands).
prob. from Ir. Toraidhe 'outlaw, highwayman'.
Onions:
Tory /'tO@ri/ (hist.) from c.1645 one of the dispossessed Irish who
became outlaws, rapparee; in 1679-80 applied to anti-exclusioners;
from 1689, member of one of the two great political parties of
Great Britain. Presumably - Ir. *toraighe /'torije/ pursuer,
implied in toraigheachd pursuit, f. toir pursue.
Skeats:
Tory. (Irish.) First used about 1680 in the political sense. The Irish
State Papers, Jan. 24, 1656, mention 'tories and other lawless
persons.' = Irish toiridhe, toruighe, lit. a (hostile) pursuer,
also a searcher (hence, a plunderer); cf. toireacht, pursuit,
search, &c. = Irish toirighim, I fancy, I pursue, search closely.
Cf. Gael. toir, pursuit, search; O. Irish toracht (for
*do-fo-racht), pursuit; where do (to) and fo (under) are prefixes,
and racht is from (PID)REG, as in L. reg-ere, to direct, Irish
rig-im, I stretch out.
Appropriate, eh?