toe-rag and toe-bag

[Arnold Zwicky]

over on Language Log, the following posting

ML, 5/2/09: Annals of word rage:
  http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1394

mentioned "toe-rag", with some commenters attesting to its use in
british slang.  there's an OED entry.  originally it referred to a rag
wrapped around the foot, serving in place of a sock.  then it
developed a metonymic use, referring to the sort of people (tramps and
vagrants) likely to use toe-rags, then generalized to refer to a
"despicable or worthless person" (as the OED puts it), and on to use
as a generic epithet.  nice development.

that's background to what i came across this morning, in an episode of
the television show Cold Case ("Stand Up and Holler", first aired 1
April 2007), a cop show set in Philadelphia: the epithet "toe-bag".
here's the quote, from a young woman talking contemptuously about her
relationship with a fellow cheerleader in high school: "I rescued that
toe-bag from Loserville!"

this is certainly american.  it's hard to search for on google;
searches pick up "tote bag" and tote bags mislabeled as "toe
bags" (there's a hell of a lot of misspelling out there) and tote bags
with images of toes on them and some puzzling stuff (like Zazzle
"toebag mugs").  the one possibly relevant Urban Dictionary entry
isn't at all helpful:

toe bag
you can use it to describe anything
dude i was left toe bag at the park the other night
bro i totally toe bagged this chick last night

not in the OED or DARE.  a Google Books search unearthed a lot of
references to actual bags, whose function is mostly unclear from the
little bits of context in the snippets.  (my favorite is "mole toe-
bag", a mole's toe in a bag, used in various american folk practices).

can anyone shed any light on the epithet "toe-bag"?

arnold

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