Origin and history of brogue

type of Celtic accent, 1705, perhaps from the meaning "rough, stout shoe" (made of rawhide and tied with thongs), of the type worn by rural Irish and Scottish highlanders (1580s), via Gaelic or Irish, from Old Irish broce "shoe." The footwear was "characteristic of the wilder Irish" [Century Dictionary], thus the noun might mean something like "speech of those who call a shoe a brogue." Or perhaps it is from Old Irish barrog "a hold" (on the tongue).