As Rough As A Badger’s Arse.

Somethings just nag away at you. Some phrases do. Having worked for several years with cockneys who considered a day wasted if they could not coin an original simile or example of rhyming slang you would think I would have got out of the habit. Seems not. The above phrase started nagging away when I turned to my latest read – Denise Mina’s Garnethill. A reviewer – not Mina herself I hasten to add – seemed to imply that the ‘funny simile’ was a product of the Glaswegian authoress’s pen. Perhap he/she had just led a sheltered existence. Enough of that irrelevance, two questions:

• Are badger’s backsides really rough?
• The derivation or first usage of the phrase, anyone?

  From what I can discover, the phrase originated in the 19th century possibly, and means ‘bad condition’, ‘ uncouth’ or ‘objectionable.’ As for badgerish roughness, in biblical days shoes were sometimes made from badger skin, which would suggest sturdiness and perhaps even comfort.