Does anyone know where the the name old fogey came from and who thought it up lol?

Question

while we are on the subject what about the word old git

Answer 1

Fogey" is, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it so well, "a disrespectful appellation for a man advanced in life, especially one with antiquated notions; an old-fashioned fellow." "Fogey" (also spelled "fogy," by the way) is probably Scottish in origin, but its ultimate roots are a bit uncertain. There are, as usual, a number of theories. It's possible that "fogey" is based on an antiquated sense of "foggy," which meant "moss-covered," but my favorite theory traces it to the Scottish word "foggie," meaning a kind of brown bumblebee.

"Fogey" is almost always preceded by the slightly redundant "old," but there are, indeed, "young fogeys," a term most often used to refer to a group of young but conservative writers and novelists in Britain who came to prominence in the early 1980s. The novelist and critic A.N. Wilson is probably the "young fogey" most widely known to Americans.

Maybe it's my own age showing, but the term "fogey" doesn't seem quite as pejorative to me as it once did. My sense is that it is getting harder to pin down exactly where simple good taste leaves off and "fogeyness" begins. I would like to think that one doesn't have to be an "old fogey" or even a "young fogey" to object to the creeping fungus of tabloid TV, shock radio, and supermodels which seems to have supplanted what was left of American culture, but I may be wrong. Maybe I'm some sort of fogey after all. There are worse fates.

Answer 2

In 1811, an Old Fogey was a nickname for an invalid, wounded soldier; derived from the French word fougeux; fierce or fiery. The modern sense has changed the use a little, but there is still the element of invalid in the saying.

Answer 3

fo·gy also fo·gey

NOUN:
pl. fo·gies , also fo·geys

A person of stodgy or old-fashioned habits and attitudes.

ETYMOLOGY:
Scots fogey

OTHER FORMS:
fogy·ish (Adjective), fogy·ism (Noun)