Webster's on line says:
Main Entry: To·ry
Pronunciation: 'tOr-E, 'tor-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural Tories
Etymology: Irish tóraidhe outlaw, robber,
from Middle Irish tóir pursuit
Date: 1646
3 a : a member or supporter of a major
British political group of the 18th and early
19th centuries favoring at first the Stuarts
and later royal authority and the
established church and seeking to preserve
the traditional political structure and
defeat parliamentary reform -- compare
WHIG b : CONSERVATIVE 1b
5 often not capitalized : an extreme
conservative especially in political and
economic principles
- Tory adjective
Damien Broderick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:35:45 MDT