ORIGIN OF THE WORD TAILOR.
To the Editor.
Dear Sir,—Bailey derives “tailor from tailler, French, a maker of garments:” but when a boy I remember perfectly well, my grandfather, who was facetious, and attached to the usages of the past, acquainting me with his origin of the word “tailor.” He stated it nearly thus:—“The term tailor originated between a botcher (a man that went from farm-house to farm-house, and made and repaired clothes by the day) and his wife—who, going to a town fair without her husband, returned in a storm at a late hour, all bespattered with mud. The wearied botcher had searched for her in vain, till meeting a neighbour, who told him his wife was gone home draggletailed, he exclaimed, ‘God be praised! she’s where she ought to be; but the De’el take the tail-’o’her.’ His brother villagers ever after called him (not the botcher) but the tail o’her—hence tailor. The Devil among the Tailors perhaps owes its origin to a similar freak.”
Speaking of a tail, the following from Bailey may not be inappropriate.—“Kentish long tails. The Kentish men are said to have had tails for some generations, by way of punishment, as some say; for the Kentish pagans abusing Austin the monk and his associates, by beating them, and opprobriously tying fish-tails to them; in revenge of which, such appendages grew to the hind parts of all that generation. But the scene of this lying wonder was not in Kent, but at Carne, in Dorsetshire. Others again say, it was for cutting off the tail of Saint Thomas of Canterbury’s horse; who, being out of favour with Henry II., riding towards Canterbury upon a poor sorry horse, was so served by the common people. Credat Judæus Apella.”
“Animals’ tails” were worn at country festivals by buffoons and sportmakers; for which, see “Plough Monday,” in the Every-Day Book; and also, see Liston, in Grojan, “I could a tail unfold!” &c.
Yours truly,
*, *, P.
For the Table Book.