英语词汇tommyrot的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

tommyrot. Partridge says that the tommy in tommyrot, “non- sense, bosh,” may be a euphemism for the strong British expres- sion bloody—British soldiers, called Tommies, once wore scarlet (bloody) uniforms. More likely, as he seems to agree, it comes from the British expression tommy, meaning “goods supplied instead of wages” by employers who ran stores on the side, something like the more infamous American company stores (first recorded in 1872). According to Edwin Radford’s Unusual Words (1946): “Employees of labour not infrequently owned shops to which the worker had to go to draw money; and there he was compelled to spend a portion of his wages on the pur- chase of the goods he must consume during the week in order to leave. To the working man, these shops were known as ‘Tom- my-shops’—the shops where he purchased his ‘tommy’, or food. The viciousness of this system will be realized when it is stated that the employer could charge pretty well what he liked in the way of high prices for the most inferior food, and the working- man had no chance but to take it, or lose his job.” Workers, in- censed at the poor stuff bundled onto them at high prices, referred to the goods of the Tommy-shop as “Tommy-rot.” The workers’ only possible revenge was with words. See tommy atkins.

词汇	tommyrot
词源	tommyrot. Partridge says that the tommy in tommyrot, “non- sense, bosh,” may be a euphemism for the strong British expres- sion bloody—British soldiers, called Tommies, once wore scarlet (bloody) uniforms. More likely, as he seems to agree, it comes from the British expression tommy, meaning “goods supplied instead of wages” by employers who ran stores on the side, something like the more infamous American company stores (first recorded in 1872). According to Edwin Radford’s Unusual Words (1946): “Employees of labour not infrequently owned shops to which the worker had to go to draw money; and there he was compelled to spend a portion of his wages on the pur- chase of the goods he must consume during the week in order to leave. To the working man, these shops were known as ‘Tom- my-shops’—the shops where he purchased his ‘tommy’, or food. The viciousness of this system will be realized when it is stated that the employer could charge pretty well what he liked in the way of high prices for the most inferior food, and the working- man had no chance but to take it, or lose his job.” Workers, in- censed at the poor stuff bundled onto them at high prices, referred to the goods of the Tommy-shop as “Tommy-rot.” The workers’ only possible revenge was with words. See tommy atkins.
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