The word tawdry has an interesting origin, according to editors of Merriam Webster Inc. It seems there was a queen of Northumbria in the 7th century named Etheldreda who renounced her husband and her royal position to become a nun. As the abbess of a monastery in the Isle of Ely, she was renowned for her saintliness. Tradition has it that she died from a swelling in her throat, which she attributed to a judgment on her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth.
Following her death, a shrine was dedicated to Etheldreda, who eventually became known as St. Audrey, and it became one of the principal sites of pilgrimage in England.Every year on Oct. 17, a fair was held where all sorts of cheap trinkets, toys and jewelry, as well as a type of necklace called "St. Audrey's lace," were sold. By the 17th century, this name had become shortened to "tawdry lace."
Eventually, "tawdry" was applied to the various other cheap articles sold at these fairs and so developed a noun sense of "cheap showy finery," as well as the more familiar adjectival use to mean "cheap and gaudy in appearance and quality."