toolie n. in Australia, an older man who preys on or interferes with teenagers celebrating the end of final year secondary school exams. Etymological Note: Perhaps related to tool ‘a stupid person’ by comparison with schoolie ‘a student celebrating the end of final year exams.’ Alternately, it could be influenced by tool v. ‘to drive (an automobile); to cruise (around),’ particularly given the predatory undertones of toolie. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Mark in Bismarck, North Dakota, spent years as a sailor, and wonders about the term sea painter, meaning “a rope attached to a lifeboat.” Why painter? The word may derive from Middle French pendeur meaning “a kind of rope that...
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital is a sensuous, exhilarating meditation about the strangeness of life on a space station, with its mix of tedious tasks and jaw-dropping views. And: a musician who rode the rails in his youth shares the slang he...
Toolie is a surname of a Siberian Yupik ( eskimo) family in Savoonga, Alaska. The traditional spelling is Tuuli