Daggletail

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An untidy, slovenly woman or girl, a term used in some English and Scottish dialects for someone who is careless about their appearance
2. A dialect word for a messy, bedraggled woman or girl whose clothes and hair are untidy and trailing in the dirt
3. Used regionally to describe a slatternly female whose dress is disordered and whose appearance is careless and unkempt

Etymology: Long before it described a person, this word named a practical problem on the farm. A "dag" was a clot of dung and dirty wool hanging from a sheep's rear, and a sheep so fouled was a "daggletail." The image is blunt, and English speakers soon turned it into a term of contempt for a slovenly or untidy person, often a woman, whose skirts trailed in the mud. The first part, "dag," is an old English dialect word for a lock of matted wool or a dirty tuft. It is closely related to "daggle," meaning to drag or trail through wet dirt, and "daggle" is the source of the verb "bedraggle." The "-tail" simply names the part of the animal that was dirtied.