Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Trollimogs, trollibags & trollibobs

Talk about offensive language! I had to avert my eyes from the OED as I checked whether trolly-without- an-e is acceptable English spelling.

Please don’t ever use the word trollimog, an English dialect word meaning a dirty, slovenly female.

She appears in Walter De La Mare’s Broomsticks as ‘That old trollimog what lives in Hogges Bottom’ who is the only friend of Sam who is black & has eyes like saucers. It is tempting to see a link with the word golliwog, but Sam is a cat, we are into witches & black magic rather than racial stereotyping.

Splendidly old-fashioned sounding invective however can be found in The Language of British Industry which was published as recently as 1974: “Untidy housewives abound, judging by all the so-called slatterns, trolly-mogs, slovens and tosspots.”

After that trollibags or trollibobs, generally preceded by tripes as in ‘tripes and trollibobs’, seem politely euphemistic words for entrails or intestines.