Does Togs Mean the Same Thing in Ireland as the UK?
Not quite: the Irish Sea splits the meaning
What does "togs" mean in Ireland compared with the UK? The short answer is that it means different things. In Ireland, togs are what you swim in. In the UK, "togs" is old informal slang for clothes in general, and the singular "tog" is the warmth rating printed on a duvet. An Irish swimmer and a British shopper can use the same word and mean two unrelated things.
This guide sets out what the dictionaries record for each side of the Irish Sea, where the word came from, and how to avoid confusion when you read or shop across the two.
In Ireland, togs means swimwear
Wiktionary lists "swimming togs" as the word for a swimsuit in Ireland, along with Queensland and New Zealand, and notes it covers swimsuits of "either the women's or men's tight-fitting type". In everyday Irish speech, then, togs are what you pack for the pool or the beach.
Ireland has a strong sea-swimming culture to go with the word. The best-known spot is the Forty Foot at Sandycove, on the southern tip of Dublin Bay. According to Wikipedia, people have swum there in the Irish Sea "all year round for some 250 years." Ireland.com, Tourism Ireland's site, says it is tradition to swim there on Christmas Day, with water temperatures of around 7 degrees.
The Forty Foot's history also shows how swimming customs change. Wikipedia records that it began as a male-only bathing place, home to the Sandycove Bathers Association, a men's swimming club. On 24 July 1974, about a dozen women's rights activists swam there in protest. Swimming is now open to men, women and children, and in 2014 the club ended its ban on women members. The spot also appears in literature: the opening of James Joyce's Ulysses is set at the nearby Martello tower, and Joyce's line about "the snotgreen sea" is still quoted about it.
Visiting the Forty Foot
If you plan to bring your togs to the Forty Foot, the sources give a fair picture of what to expect.
Getting there. Ireland.com suggests taking the DART train from Dublin city centre to Dún Laoghaire and walking along the coast to Sandycove beach and the Forty Foot. Dún Laoghaire has its own sea-swimming spot, the Dún Laoghaire Baths, as well as a 19th-century pier.
The water. The cove is bounded by rocks on both sides, and the water is deep, with a view of Dublin Bay, which Ireland.com notes is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. You may share it with cormorants, herons and the odd seal. Ireland.com's advice on seals is to keep your distance, because they are wild animals and unpredictable.
Safety. This is cold, open sea. Wikipedia's article records that deaths, near-drownings and hypothermia have resulted from swimming there. Ireland.com puts the winter water at around 7 degrees and says plainly that "it's not for the faint-hearted."
How old is the tradition? The sources differ. Wikipedia says people have swum there for about 250 years. Ireland.com dates swimming at the Forty Foot to the 19th century. The name is uncertain too: Wikipedia notes an 1833 map labelling a nearby road the Forty Foot Road, perhaps because it was 40 feet wide, and that the swimming place was called the Forty-Foot Hole in the 1800s. A story that it was named after the 40th Regiment of Foot does not hold up, because that regiment was stationed elsewhere in Dublin.
In the UK, togs means clothes, and tog means warmth
Wiktionary marks "togs" in British English as slang for "clothes", and quotes Charles Dickens using it in Oliver Twist in 1838. It also lists "togs" with a qualifier for clothes worn for one purpose, such as "gardening togs". That is a wider meaning than the Irish one: in the UK, "togs" on its own means clothes, not specifically swimwear.
The British meaning most people meet today is the singular "tog" on bedding. Argos calls it "the unit of measurement used to describe a duvet's ability to trap air and retain heat." According to Wikipedia's article on the unit, it was created in 1946 by F. T. Peirce and W. H. Rees of the Shirley Institute in Manchester, and one tog equals 0.1 square metre kelvin per watt. Argos says most UK duvets are rated between 4.5 and 15 tog. Marks & Spencer's duvet guide expands the word as "thermal overall grade", a meaning added after the fact, and adds that "weight and thickness don't have a direct correlation" with the rating.
As for the British word for swimwear, Wikipedia's article on Australian English gives it as "swimming costume", set against the Australian "swimmers", "togs" and "bathers".
One old word, two paths
Both meanings start in the same place. Etymonline dates "tog" to 1708, meaning "outer garment," and notes that from the later 1700s it was usually plural, "togs". It was shortened from "togman", a 1560s thieves' slang word for a cloak or loose coat, which came from French and goes back to the Latin "toga".
From that start the meanings split:
- In Ireland (as in Queensland and New Zealand), the clothing sense narrowed to one kind of clothing: what you wear to swim.
- In Britain, "togs" kept its general meaning of clothes, as in Dickens. Then in 1946 the textile scientists in Manchester named their new warmth unit "tog". Wikipedia notes they never explained the choice, but that Collins Dictionary derives the unit from "tog" meaning clothes, and Chambers Dictionary gives "1940s: perhaps from tog [as clothing]".
So the swimwear "togs" and the duvet "tog" are distant relatives through the same old word for a garment, but they are used in different countries for different things.
Where confusion happens
The two meanings collide most when people read or shop across the Irish Sea:
- Shopping online. A search for "togs" can bring up duvets for one reader and swimsuits for another. Adding "swimming" or "duvet" to the search avoids it.
- Product labels. In a UK shop, a number followed by "tog" is about bedding warmth. In an Irish shop, "togs" on a sign means swimwear.
- Conversation. If an Irish friend asks a British friend to bring their togs to the beach, the British friend will probably still understand from the context. The confusion is mostly in writing and search results.
Quick reference
| Ireland | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| "Togs" on its own | Swimwear | Clothes (informal, older use) |
| "Swimming togs" | Swimwear | Understood as swimming clothes |
| "Tog" with a number | Not the usual meaning | Duvet warmth rating, e.g. 10.5 tog |
| Usual word for a swimsuit | Togs | Swimming costume |
Sources: Wiktionary (togs), Wikipedia (Australian English; Tog unit), Argos.
Where to buy
If you were looking for swimwear, our guide to what togs means covers the word across Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and togs vs bathers vs cossie maps the Australian words state by state. If you were looking for bedding, start with the tog rating chart by season and our explainer on how tog ratings are measured.