Entry · catalog no. 1016

togged to the bricks

/ /

phrase · Harlem ·

✓ Verified

Dressed to the highest possible degree; immaculately turned out from hat to shoes.

“He stepped out the building togged to the bricks — hat cocked, watch chain, shoes shining.”

Origin & Attribution

Harlem, 1930s and 40s; preserved in both Calloway's dictionary and Hurston's 1942 glossary. Ancestor of a long unbroken line of Black sartorial praise: cleaner than the Board of Health, dressed to kill, fresh, fitted.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

Harlem ·

Spoken by

$TOGGEDThe Record · cultural traction

▲

26 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

60/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.

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Citations & Sources

■

Cab Calloway's Cat-ologue: A Hepster's Dictionary — book · 1938

submitted

■

Story in Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston — short story with glossary · 1942

submitted

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