WORD OF THE DAY: DILLY-DAW

DILLY-DAW

​NOUN
one who is both slovenly and slow ...1814 Sc. obs.

ETYMOLOGY
from dilly as in dilly-dally + daw (a slattern, a drab, an untidy woman)

FIRST DOCUMENTED USE
1814 - see EXAMPLE below

EXAMPLE
"...But say't yoursels leddies; I'm no a man that's near mysel'; the walth he has seen it meet in his providence to bestow on me, I wad like to use in moderation; an' is it no angersom to see her like a dilly daw, an' bits o' creatures that she could keep at her fire-side, buskit up like Flanders-babies..."
From: The Saxon and the Gael; or, The Northern Metropolis: including A View of the Lowland and Highland Character
- Christian Isobel Johnstone