Tawdry

     I have always been interested in etymology--no, not entomology, that's the study of bugs.  Etymology is the study of word origins.  I haven't exactly made a study of it, I have been out of school a long time and learning no longer counts even for extra credit, but I am interested in word origins when I happen to come across them.  I learned the origin of the word tawdry when touring the cathedral at Ely in England.  St. Audrey, born princess Etheldreda, (good reason to change your name)  founded the abbey at Ely after being widowed from one marriage and escaping from the other.  Having taken a vow of perpetual virginity early in life, even marriages for reasons of state didn't work out too well.  Her husband from her first, unconsummated marriage died. (My husband would probably insert an erroneous conclusion here.)  Her second husband was young and unwilling to leave his perpetually platonic princess unconsumed.  He chased her through the fens (British word for swamps), but high waters prevented him from catching her and he eventually went off to marry someone less perpetual.
     Audrey established an abbey at Ely.  Swamps, eels, you can figure out that word origin.  Despite its princess patronage, perpetual virginity is not a big money maker, so the abbey sponsored an annual fair to raise money.  Catholics are big into relics like a shard from a shrine, sliver of the cross or finger bone of some departed saint.  The relics for sale at St. Audrey's fair were famously cheap versions of the above.  It was like the Dollar Store of the religious relic world.  No one wants a second hand finger bone, so these cheap relics sold by St. Audrey came to be called t'Audrey.  In the course of time Etheldreda's legacy was neither her piety nor her purity, it was a new word for cheap--tawdry.