touch of the tar brush
Appearance
See also: touch of the tarbrush
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Believed to be of British origin.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
[edit]touch of the tar brush (plural touches of the tar brush)
- (informal) Real or suspected African or Asian distant ancestry in a person of predominantly Caucasian ancestry; mixed racial heritage (e.g. Afro-Caribbean or, to a lesser extent, South Asian in background or appearance).
- Synonym: lick of the tarbrush
- 1936, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, page 30:
- She was quite young—not more than about twenty-five—and sort of dark and slinky-looking, if you know what I mean. Quite nice-looking in a kind of way, but rather as though she might have what my mother used to call "a touch of the tar-brush."
Usage notes
[edit]- Not generally used for people that are unambiguously and distinctly of mixed race.