Origin and history of tawdry

"no longer fresh or elegant but displayed as if it were so; in cheap and ostentatious imitation of what is rich or costly," 1670s, an adjectival use of the noun tawdry "silk necktie for women" (1610s). This was shortened from tawdry lace (1540s), a misdivision (with adhesion of the -t- from Saint) of St. Audrey's lace, "necktie or ribbon sold at the annual fair at Ely on Oct. 17 commemorating St. Audrey."

The necklaces came to represent rustic or cheap finery, especially as worn by country girls.

That which is tawdry has lost whatever freshness or elegance it has had, but is worn as if it were fresh, tasteful, and elegant, or it may be a cheap and ostentatious imitation of what is rich or costly. [Century Dictionary]

The saint was a queen of Northumbria, obit 679; her association with lace necklaces is that she supposedly died of a throat tumor, which, according to Bede, she considered God's punishment for her youthful stylishness:

"I know of a surety that I deservedly bear the weight of my trouble on my neck, for I remember that, when I was a young maiden, I bore on it the needless weight of necklaces; and therefore I believe the Divine goodness would have me endure the pain in my neck, that so I may be absolved from the guilt of my needless levity, having now, instead of gold and pearls, the fiery heat of a tumour rising on my neck." [A.M. Sellar translation, 1907]

But Southey ("Omniana") speculates that "Probably she wore this lace to conceal the scrofulous appearance." He also notes, in 1812, "It would not be readily supposed that Audrey is the same name as Ethelreda." Related: Tawdrily; tawdriness; tawdrum "a tawdry decoration."