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Is "fleabag" as a derogatory term for an unpleasantly dirty person a Britishism?

English Language & Usage Asked on December 12, 2020

I have always heard and used "fleabag" as referring to a shabby hotel/motel room, a dump of a place, so I was kind of surprised to see it also has a separate meaning of a dirty person. This usage is not listed in some dictionaries, but does occur in some others.

Google/Lexico:

  1. A shabby and unpleasant person or thing.

  2. NORTH AMERICAN a seedy, run-down hotel or lodging house.

It is interesting to note that Lexico considers the hotel meaning North American and the other one general usage.

Cambridge, on the other hand, says:

UK informal a dirty and/or unpleasant person or animal

US a cheap, dirty hotel

So is the person meaning a BrE. usage? Or was it used as well on this side of the pond at some point?

For reference, "fleabag" doesn’t have a separate entry in the OED, but under flea it says:

flea-bag n. slang a bed; also, a soldier’s sleeping-bag; also applied to a shabby building, place, etc.

One Answer

According GDoS the term fleabag has a military origin and its earliest usage instances are Irish:

  1. (orig. milit., also flea-park) a sleeping bag or bed; a bedroll, a mattress.
  • c.1790 [Ire] ‘De May-Bush’ in Walsh Ireland Ninety Years Ago (1885) 91: Bill Durham [...] Was now in his flea-park, taking a snore Fearing every moment the arrival of the real Simon Pure should cover me with shame and disgrace.
  • 1839 [Ire] C.J. Lever Harry Lorrequer 266: ‘I think the gentleman would be better if he went off to his flea-bag himself.’ In my then mystified intellect this west country synonym for a bed a little puzzled me.

The related meaning of “a cheap hotel or lodging house” appears to have developed mainly in the US.

  • 1931 [US] D. Runyon ‘Broadway Financier’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 204: I will be living at home with her instead of in a flea bag in Forty-seventh Street.
  • 1946 [US] Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 177: We all laid around that fleabag-with-room-service for a couple of gripy weeks.
  • 2003 - [US] N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 3: There was still a lot of old fleabags like the Hotel Montague.

From that the term was used to refer to an old dog:

  • 1977 [US] S. Stallone Paradise Alley (1978) 28: ‘There ain’t no reason to call Bella a fleabag.’ ‘Hey Vic, that mutt’s got no class.’.

or a trump, a vagrant:

  • 2001 OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. [Internet] fleabag n. derog. smelly person dressed in Oxfam style dress, possibly wearing Tesco trainers, possibly having fleas too.

Answered by user121863 on December 12, 2020

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