turncoat

Etymology

It is formed from English turn + coat,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} after the phrase “to turn one's coat”.^[2] Middle English already used the verb for turning clothing inside out, and the image is of turning one's outer garment to hide the badge of one's party or leader.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who deserts one party or cause for its opponents: 1557 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[4] the 1550s in Etymonline.^[3] The OED, revised in 2023, first quotes it from about 1566, in W. P.'s translation of Curio's Pasquine in Traunce.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its first sense, usually with disapproval.^[2] Etymonline dates the phrase "to turn one's coat" to the 1570s,^[3] and Ayto calls it contemporaneous with the noun.^[7] The word was also applied to anything that changes its outward colour or appearance, from 1567 in Maplet's Greene Forest,^[2][5] and it became an adjective by 1571, in Golding's translation of Calvin's Psalmes of Dauid.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as one who forsakes his party or principles, quoting Shakespeare: "Then is courtesy a turncoat".^[8] A verb, to desert in the manner of a turncoat, followed in 1618, and an intransitive use, to change sides, in 1869.^[2][5] Only from 1726, in a letter of Gay's, is the word recorded for a literal coat worn inside out, later a reversible coat.^[2]

Timeline

• 1557 – a person who deserts one party or cause for its opponents.^[4][3] The OED's first quotation is from about 1566.^[2]
• 1567 – something that changes its outward colour or appearance (obsolete by 1916).^[2]
• 1571 – adjective, of or like a turncoat.^[2]
• 1618 – verb, transitive, to desert in the manner of a turncoat.^[2]
• 1726 – a coat worn inside out; later, a reversible coat.^[2]
• 1869 – verb, intransitive, to change sides.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who abandons a party, cause or principles and joins the other side; a renegade, usually disparaging: The rebels branded their former captain a turncoat.^[9][4][2]
2. A coat worn inside out, typically because the outside is shabby or damaged; later, a reversible coat.^[2]
3. (obsolete, 1567–1916) Something that changes its outward colour or appearance.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or being a turncoat.^[2][5]

Verb

1. To desert one party or cause for an opposing one; to change sides.^[2][5]
2. (rare) To desert someone or something in the manner of a turncoat.^[2]

Word family

• turncoating

Related words

• turn
• coat

Usage notes

According to a story Ayto reports as probably apocryphal, a Duke of Saxony whose lands bordered France had a coat that was blue on one side and white on the other, and wore the white side out when he wanted to seem to favour the French.^[7] Documentation for the tale is lacking, and Ayto thinks the expression probably had a much less specific origin.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins