Croppies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term used historically to refer to Irish insurgents who favored short hair in the late 18th century
2. a name for rebels involved in the Irish uprising of 1798
3. also describes a style of haircut associated with that movement among the Irish populace

Etymology: The plural of "croppy" is "croppies," and the word traces back to a haircut. "Croppy" is formed from "crop," the English verb meaning to cut short, with the suffix "-y" added. The name alluded to the practice of wearing the hair cut short, which was taken as a mark of the Irish insurgents of the late 18th century. Their opponents used it as a label, and in an era when fashionable and powdered wigs signalled rank, cropped hair was a deliberately plain, anti-aristocratic style. The insurgents' hair thus gave them a nickname that stuck in the history books. Because "croppy" is a plain English compound of a verb and a suffix, the story lies in the physical detail of the haircut rather than in any foreign root or invented coinage.