local U.S. Also tackey. [Origin obscure.]
A. sb. a. A degenerate ‘weedy’ horse: see quot. 1884. b. A poor white of the Southern States from Virginia to Georgia.
1884. E. Eggleston in Cent. Mag., Jan., 444/2. The scrubby little ‘tackeys’ still taken in the marshes along the North Carolina coast are descendants of the wild horses of the colony. Ibid. (1888), Sept., 799/2. If Mr. Catlett will come to Georgia and go among tho ‘po’ whites’ and ‘piney-wood tackeys.’
1889. Farmer, Americanisms, Tackey, in the South, a jade of a horse; a sorry beast; and idiomatically a man neglectful of personal appearance.
1896. Peterson Mag., Jan., 84/2. Here … is a native of the Virginia wilds, a specimen of the genus ‘tacky.’
B. adj. Dowdy, shabby. U.S. colloq.
1893. L. J. Rittenhouse, in Chicago Advance, 22 June. She looks so tacky in her shabby dress.
