Entry · catalog no. 1016

togged to the bricks

/ /tɑːɡd tə ðə brɪks/ /togd tuh thuh BRIKS

phrase · Harlem · 1940s

✓ 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.

1938

Preserved in Calloway's dictionary

1942

In Hurston's Harlem glossary

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Harlem · 1940s

Spoken by

Harlem speakers

$TOGGEDThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Dormant

88 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

20/100

peak cultural energy

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

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1938

in the culture

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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