Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—T

Tasselled Gentleman

A fop, a man dressed in fine clothes. A corruption of Tercel-gentle by a double blunder: (1) Tercel, erroneously supposed to be tassel, and to refer to the tags and tassels worn by men on their dress; and (2) gentle corrupted into gentlemen, according to the Irish exposition of the verse, “The gentle shall inherit the earth.”

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
Tatianists
Tassel-Gentle
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