[Deriv. unknown: from the frequent mention of ‘Irish brogue,’ it has been conjectured that this may be the same word as the prec., as if ‘the speech of those who wear brogues,’ or ‘who call their shoes brogues’; but of this there is no evidence.]
A strongly marked dialectal pronunciation or accent; now particularly used of the peculiarities that generally mark the English speech of Ireland, which is treated spec. as the brogue.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4123/4. Charles Morgan … having much of the Irish Brogue in his Speech.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., I. ix. 66. Keep the sportman’s brogue upon their tongues.
1775. T. Sheridan, Art Reading, 146. They brought with them each their several brogues or modes of intonation.
1828. Scott, Review Ritson’s Hist. (1849), 345. The Doctor … has done much for the Lowland Scottish brogue.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, x. (1878), 65. From the lips of a lovely woman, a little, a very little of the brogue is most seductive.
1878. Black, Green Past., iii. 23. The very stones of Westminster Hall are saturated with Irish brogue.
