tommyrot

19 October 2026

Tommyrot is a Briticism, a noun and interjection meaning nonsense or balderdash. It’s now rather dated. The origin is unknown, but we can make some reasonable speculation about it.

It’s first recorded in an article in London’s Sporting Times of 17 July 1880:

So Jope’s valet was entrusted with five shillings to get a pint of Perrier Jouet. In due time came the wine.

“How much was it?” said Bill.

“Three and six,” said the man.

“Then where’s my change?”

“Please, sir, the landlord said he’d settle that with the Doctor when he came over,” and Bill came to the conclusion that standing Jope champagne and at the same time having to wipe his slate was all tommy rot.

Another early documented use is from the north of England, in Hartlepool’s Northern Evening Mail of 18 September 1880:

Councillor McCann stigmatised the proceedings of the committee as “Tommy rot” and nonsense.

A decade earlier, we have an example of Tommy Rot being used as a person’s name, but we don't know who that person was, whether they were real or fictional, and how, if it all, the name is related to the later use meaning nonsense. From a classified ad in London’s The Era of 2 January 1870:

“I TOLD YOU I WOULD.”—Look at the Opinions of the Press in proof of the Glorious Success of JOHNNY MATTHEWSON as Clown at the ROYAL PRINCESS’S THEATRE, EDINBURGH. The Best Pantomime out of London. Look out for his Scottish Ballet Company. Where are you now, “Tommy Rot?” Ain’t you frightened?

So where do we think the term may come from?

My best guess is that the Tommy in the term comes from use of that name to denote a fool or simple-minded person, and rot from the slang sense of that word meaning nonsensical talk. So tommyrot would refer to utterings of a foolish person. The Oxford English Dictionary documents use of this sense of Tommy from 1828, and Tom fool or tomfool dates to the mid sixteenth century. The slang sense of rot appears in the mid nineteenth century.

More commonly, it is suggested that it is related to the use of Tommy as a sobriquet for the British soldier. That use of Tommy appears at about the same time, first attested in 1881 but perhaps considerably older in spoken use. The rot may be a reference to the red uniforms of those soldiers and to blood, with tommyrot being related to the expletive bloody. While the dates are roughly in alignment, the early uses of tommyrot are not in military contexts, making the connection unlikely. Furthermore, the connection to bloody seems awfully strained.

Sources:

Classified ad. The Era (London), 2 January 1870, 16/3. British Newspaper Archive.

Green’s Dictionary of Slang, accessed 3 October 2026, s.v. tommyrot, n.

“The Mikado of Indiana.” The Sporting Times (London), 17 July 1880, 3/4. British Newspaper Archive.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, January 2018, s.v. tommyrot, n. (& int.), Tommy, n.1., tomfool, n. & adj.; September 2010, s.v. rot, n.1 (& int.).

“Stockton Urban Sanitary Authority.” Northern Evening Mail (Hartlepool, England), 18 September 1880, 4/4. British Newspaper Archive.