Origin of "toffee-nosed"

Question

What's the origin of toffee-nosed (snobbish, disdainful, stuck-up)?

Is it related to "toff" (upper-class)?

Answer 1

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term toffee-nosed is slang that originated in the early 1920s:

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 287 Toffee-nosed, stuck up.

The source of this quote suggests that it was a term used by soldiers and/or sailors. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

There are theories that "toffee-nosed" (or "toff", and meaning snobbish; pretentiously superior) comes from "tuft" - a gold tassel on a cap worn by titled student at Oxford University. But more credibly - if less tastefully - the origin appears to derive from the unsightly brown droplets that dripped from a gentleman's nose after taking snuff - which of course was only taken by the "upper class". (Ref: Sue Arnold's book Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy [2006])

The Phrase Finder adds that this is a very British phrase, and that it definitely derives from toff or tuft:

The origin of 'toffee-nosed' has nothing to do with the sugary, brown sweet, but derives from 'toff', which was the slang term given by the lower-classes in Victorian England to stylishly-dressed upper-class gentlemen. It was recorded by Henry Mayhew in London Labour and the London Poor, 1851:

If it's a lady and gentleman, then we cries, 'A toff and a doll!'

It is widely agreed amongst etymologists that 'toff' was a corruption of 'tuft', which has a clear aristocratic pedigree, being the ornamental tassel on an academic cap. Specifically, a tuft was the gold tassel originally worn on academic caps at Oxford University by the sons of those peers who had a vote in the House of Lords. They were worn on the celebratory 'Gaudy Days', i.e. the university's twice-yearly feast days (which sound a good deal more fun than 'Dress-down Fridays'). The wearers of the prestigious tufts became known as tufts themselves, even having their own sycophantic crowd of wannabees, known as the 'tufthunters'.

Tufts were variously called tofts, tuffs and, by 1851 at least, toffs. They were already a well-established breed before 'toffee-nosed' began to be used. That didn't emerge until the early 20th century, as in this definition from Fraser and Gibbons' Soldier and Sailor Words, 1925:

Toffee-nosed, stuck up.

The 'nosed' part of 'toffee-nosed' appears to derive from the allusion to the haughty toffs, who stuck their noses in the air when faced with the hoi polloi.

So someone who is toffee-nosed is a toff, or one who sticks their nose haughtily in the air.

Answer 2

I think the derivation is the other way around, since I find some data of "toff" but not on toffee nose. Etymology online says:

lower-class British slang for "stylish dresser, member of the smart set," 1851, probably an alteration of tuft, formerly an Oxford Univ. term for a nobleman or gentleman-commoner (1755), in ref. to the gold ornamental tassel worn on the caps of undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge whose fathers were peers with votes in the House of Lords.

Another source suggests the rather unpleasant explanation that it derives from the brown drops that dripped from the nose of a snuff taker. I'd go with the former, but mention the latter to gross you out on this lovely Saturday.

Answer 3

My grandfather described the meaning of 'toffee-nosed' this way: Toffee used to be one of the most expensive candies made, due to the amount of butter it requires. As such, only the wealthy could afford it. On Saturdays, public school boys would be allowed into town to spend their allowances, invariably ending up at the sweet shop, where they would not only make a big show of buying toffee, but an even greater one of eating it (nose in the air as it was placed in the mouth). Of course the show was solely for the purpose of lording it over any poorer boys who might be in the vicinity (street urchins or even their own less well-heeled classmates).

Answer 4

Although toffee-nosed was first recorded by the OED relatively recently:

toffee-nosed adj. slang snobbish, supercilious.

1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 287 Toffee-nosed, stuck up.

the OED can be used to form a plausible evolution of Toffee-nosed from tuft

The etymology is interesting and has nothing to do with the word “toffee”:

Etymology: The derivation presents many difficulties. Supposed to represent French touffe (in Old French also toffe , tofe ), ‘a kind of helmet crest’, or ‘a kind of military standard’.

The difficulties centre around the development of the word from the Latin and therefore would not interfere with the Old French/French Norman, not the meaning.

The earliest mention is in 1631:

†5. b. figurative. Head, chief, top. Obsolete. Apparently an isolated use.

1631 B. Jonson Staple of Newes ii. v. 94 in Wks. II He is..my Chiefe, the Point, Tip, Top, and Tuft of all our family.

Here we have a metaphor for “the highest point. – something/someone we should “look up to,” i.e. respect.

The tassel origin is not so much in the tassel but in those who were allowed to wear it:

7.a. An ornamental tassel on a cap; spec. the gold tassel formerly worn by titled undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge (see quot. 1894).Originally, at Oxford, a distinction of the sons of those peers who had a vote in the House of Lords, after 1861 of all peers and their eldest sons; after 1870 made optional.

1894 Westm. Gaz. 5 Mar. 3/1 Lord Rosebery..was one of the last undergraduates of Christ Church who wore the gold tassel, known by the name of ‘tuft’, which was the distinguishing mark of noblemen and the sons of noblemen.

It seems to have followed an earlier ecclesiastical tradition:

1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa i. iii. 71 That invention of Bishops and Prelates to wear Green Tufts in their Caps.

It then became

. transferred in University slang, One who wears a tuft; a titled undergraduate.

1755 Connoisseur No. 97. ⁋1 I remember to have heard a cousin of mine,..formerly at Cambridge,..mentioning a sect of Philosophers, distinguished by the rest of the collegians under the appellation of Tuft-Hunters. These were..the followers (literally speaking) of the fellow-commoners, noblemen, and other rich students.

1840 W. M. Thackeray Shabby Genteel Story ii The lad went to Oxford,..frequented the best society, followed with a kind of proud obsequiousness all the tufts of the university.

Toff first appears in 1851

H. Mayhew London Labour I. 217/2 Toff, Gentleman.* seems to have been a late adaptation - perhaps a mishearing(?) followed by a misspelling, for it should be "toffy-nosed".

The second element nosed is reached thus:

OED “nosed

2. a. Having a nose, esp. of a specified kind. Chiefly as the second element in compounds.bottle-, flat-, hawk-, hook-, long-, red-nosed, etc.: see as main entries.

2.b. Having a nose like that of some other person or animal. Now rare. 1505 Instr. Henry VII to Ambassadors in Facsimiles National MSS (1865) I. 92 She ys myche lyke nosid vnto the quyn hir moder. [She is similarly nosed to her mother, the Queen.]

a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Sea Voy. v. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Ccccc/1 The slaves are nos'd like Vultures How wilde they look.

1981 ‘E. Peters’ Leper of St Giles (1984) v. 54 A..knight browed and nosed like a falcon.

In the 1981 quote, we could equally say “A falcon-browed and –nosed knight.

And thus

Toffee-nosed = looking like someone who is the son of a member of the nobility, and finally… looking like someone who is a member of the nobility.