ragged

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2] It is perhaps borrowed from Old Norse raggaðr (“shaggy, tufted”),^[2][3] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English give the Old Norse form as rǫggvaðr, comparing Norwegian ragget (“shaggy”).^[4][5] The OED's other explanations are an altered form of raggy, with a change of suffix, and a formation from rag with the suffix -ed.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins take it as formed from Middle English ragge + -ed,^[6][7][8] and Etymonline as a past-participle adjective, as though from a verb made from the noun rag.^[3] That noun is probably itself Scandinavian, compare Old Norse rögg (“shaggy tuft, rough hair”) and rug.^[3] Old English had raggig (“shaggy, bristly”), used of a horse's coat,^[9][3] which Barnhart, as quoted in Etymonline, thought almost surely developed from Scandinavian.^[3] The word is apparently recorded earlier as a surname, “Ricardus le Raggede”, in 1197.^[2] Etymonline compares Latin pannōsus (“ragged, wrinkly”), from pannus (“piece of cloth”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The rough part of something, as a noun: c. 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle, although the OED takes the noun from the adjective.^[2] The adjective is first recorded c. 1300, in Body and Soul, of a devil rough or shaggy like an animal.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is one of rough form: the shaggy devil (c. 1300 to 1500), then an animal or its coat (before 1425) and a bird with uneven feathers (before 1513).^[2] From there it spread to anything with a rough, uneven surface or outline: branches and plants from 1387, ground from before 1398, rocks and cliffs from 1439.^[2] Etymonline dates the use for plants or leaves, in the sense "serrated", to the late 14th century.^[3] A second line concerns appearance: cloth torn or frayed from c. 1350, and people dressed in rags from c. 1390.^[10] Etymonline dates clothing to c. 1300 and people to the late 14th century.^[3] Johnson (1755) put "rent into tatters" first, and quoted Shakespeare's "ragged sails".^[11] The extended uses followed: an immaterial thing lacking finish or uniformity (c. 1450), a harsh sound (before 1616, in As You Like It),^[2] and a dilapidated place (1565).^[10] The sense "worn out", first American, is from 1912, especially in to run someone ragged,^[10] a phrase that Etymonline dates to 1915.^[3] Printers have used it since 1936 for an uneven margin.^[2] In slang it meant "drunk" in B. Franklin's Drinkers Dictionary (1737) and "second-rate" from 1772,^[12] and the American slang on the ragged edge means in a state of distress.^[4] In English dialects it could also mean stony or rocky (West Yorkshire).^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – noun, the rough part of something (obsolete by 1850).^[2]
• c. 1300 – of a devil, shaggy like an animal (obsolete by 1500).^[2]
• c. 1350 – of cloth or a garment, torn, frayed.^[10] Etymonline dates clothing to c. 1300.^[3]
• 1387 – of a root, branch or plant, rough and uneven.^[2]
• c. 1390 – of a person, dressed in rags.^[10]
• 1397 – in heraldry, the same as raguly.^[2]
• before 1398 – of ground, rough, uneven.^[2]
• before 1425 – of an animal or its coat, shaggy, unkempt.^[2]
• 1439 – of a rock, cliff or building, jagged.^[2]
• c. 1450 – of an immaterial thing, imperfect, lacking finish.^[2]
• 1565 – of a place, dilapidated.^[10]
• before 1616 – of a sound, harsh, discordant.^[2]
• 1737 – slang, drunk.^[12]
• 1801 – noun, the ragged, people in rags.^[2]
• 1912 – worn out, especially in to run someone ragged.^[10] Etymonline dates the phrase to 1915.^[3]
• 1936 – in printing, of an uneven margin.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of clothes or cloth, worn to rags; tattered or frayed: a ragged old raincoat.^[8][4]
2. Of a person, dressed in shabby, torn clothes: The ragged travellers begged for bread.^[8][4]
3. Rough and unkempt; shaggy: a ragged grey beard.^[7][8]
4. Having a rough, uneven surface, edge or outline; jagged: the ragged skyline of the ridge.^[7][8][4]
5. Uneven or irregular; lacking finish or uniformity: a ragged burst of applause.^[8][4]
6. Of a sound, harsh or discordant: a ragged cough.^[2][4]
7. Worn out, exhausted, especially in run someone ragged.^[4][2]
8. (typography) Of a margin, not justified, with the line ends uneven.^[7][2]
9. (heraldry) The same as raguly.^[7][4]

Noun

1. the ragged: people in rags.^[2]

Word family

• raggedly
• raggedness
• raggedy
• ragged robin

Related words

• rag
• raggy
• rug
• ragamuffin
• raguly

Usage notes

The OED enters several other adjectives of this spelling, pronounced with one syllable, /raɡd/.^[2] One means "thickly laden with fruit", from 1661 and perhaps from rag in the sense of a lichen hanging from trees;^[2] in the dialects of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire ragged was said of laden fruit trees.^[13] The others are participles of other verbs spelled rag: "teased, scolded" from 1903, and, of music, "turned into ragtime" from 1917.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b c d e f g Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)