Where "Togs" Comes From
"Togs" derives from the old British slang word "tog" — meaning a garment or coat — which itself appears to come from "togeman," criminal slang for a cloak, first recorded in the 16th century. The more distant root may be the Latin "toga." In general British English, "togs" once meant clothes of any kind ("pack your togs"), but in Australian, New Zealand, and Irish English the word narrowed over time to mean specifically a swimming costume.
In Australia, "togs" is most strongly associated with Queensland, where it is the dominant term over "bathers" (Victoria), "cossie" (NSW), and "swimmers" (used more neutrally across all regions). The survival of "togs" in Queensland while other states developed different terms illustrates how Australian English evolved from competing British regional dialects: the word that won out in one colony was determined by which group of settlers happened to predominate there. The togs/bathers/cossie divide is one of the most reliable regional markers in Australian English. An early print citation for "togs" as swimwear is 1914, in Constance Holme's novel "The Lonely Plough" ("Some old bathing-togs he had dug up somewhere!").
Source:
"Grab your togs, we're heading down to the pool."
How Aussies Actually Use It
If you're in Queensland, "togs" is simply the word for swimwear — used by everyone, for both men's and women's swimwear alike.
Travel further south and you'll hear "bathers" or "cozzie" instead, which is a classic example of Australia's strong state-by-state slang variation for the exact same item.
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