Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Brogue

Word of the Day for Wednesday, December 21, 2011

brogue \brohg\, noun:
1. Any strong regional accent.
2. An Irish accent in the pronunciation of English.
3. A durable, comfortable, low-heeled shoe, often having decorative perforations and a wing tip.
4. A coarse, usually untanned leather shoe once worn in Ireland and Scotland.
5. Brogan.
6. A fraud; trick; prank.

“Nothing like hair of the dog that bit ya, as long as it's green hair,” he said in that brogue that was getting old.
-- Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer

His brogue grew less heavy, his speech more formal, tailoring it to his audience.
-- James Rollins, The Doomsday Key

Brogue originally referred to a type of shoe worn by rural Irish and Scottish highlanders. The word came to be associated with the accent of these people by the early 1700s.

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