Etymology Dictionary

TAWDRY,  showy, but without taste, gaudy.  (E.)   'A tawdrie lace;' Spenser, Shep. Kal., April, 135; 'a tawdry lace,' Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 253; 'tawdry-lace,' Beaum. and Fletcher, Faithful Shepherdess, Act iv. sc. 1 (Amarillis).   Thus it was first used in the phr. tawdry lace = a rustic necklace; explained in Skinner (following Dr. Hickes) as being a necklace bought at St. Awdry's fair, held in the Isle of Ely (and elsewhere) on St. Awdry's day, Oct. 17.   Wedgwood doubts the ancient celebrity of this fair (which I do not), and accepts in preference the alternative account in Nares, that St. Audry 'died of a swelling in the throat, which she considered as a particular judgment, for having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine necklaces;' see Nich. Harpsfield, Hist. Eccl. Anglicana, Sæc. Sept. p. 86; Brady, Clavis Calendaria, Oct. 17.   β. In any case, we are quite sure that Tawdry is a corruption of St. Audry; and we are equally sure (as any one living near Ely must be) that Audry is a corruption of Etheldrida, the famous saint who founded Ely Cathedral.   γ. Again, Etheldrida is the Latinised form of the A.S. name Æþeldryð; Ælfred, tr. of Beda, lib. iv. c. 19, which see.   The name is spelt Æþeldryht in the earliest MS. of the A.S. Chron. an. 673; and Æðeldriþ in the Laud MS.   It means 'noble troop.'—A.S. æðel, noble; and dryht, properly a troop, a body-guard (the Icel. drótt, a body-guard, is also used as a female name); cf. dryhtwer, a man, dryhtscipe, dominion, dryhtsele, royal hall, palace.