rascal

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rascaile, also rascaille,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman rascaile (“rabble, common people”)^[5][2] and Old French rascaille,^[6][7][8][9] modern French racaille.^[5][6][10] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1136 for the rabble, the lowest social class and foot soldiers.^[11] Its further origin is uncertain.^[12][6] The OED takes it as apparently formed from an unrecorded verb *rasquer (“to scrape”), cognate with Spanish rascar, and the collective suffix -aille;^[5][2] Merriam-Webster gives that verb as Norman and Picard, from Vulgar Latin *rāsicō (“to scrape”).^[2][3] Ayto, Hoad and the Shorter Oxford derive the Latin verb from rās-, the past participle stem of rādō (“to scrape, scratch, shave”), the source also of erase and razor.^[13][10][8] Barnhart, the AHD and Ayto take the French word from a northern *rasque (“mud, filth, scurf”),^[7][3][13] a form of rasche (“scurf”), the source of rash, a skin eruption.^[13][9][8] Etymonline suggests the notion of "the scrapings",^[6] and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins calls this a common image for the dregs of society.^[14] Barnhart doubts that the French word was shaped by French canaille (“rabble”) or is related to Icelandic rask (“fish waste, trash”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A low, dishonest person, a rogue: before 1338, in Mannyng's Chronicle;^[7][5] the collective sense, the common people or the rabble, also the common soldiers and camp followers of an army, is recorded from before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds it curious that the form rascal and the sense of a single member of the rabble appear only about 1475, about 130 years after the sense "rogue".^[7] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins likewise says the word has meant a rogue from the start.^[14] In hunting, rascal was the young, lean or inferior deer of a herd, from about 1425 to 1785;^[5][6] Skeat says that a hart was counted rascayle until it was six years old,^[15] and Weekley notes the sense is common in Shakespeare.^[16] A Lancashire dialect still used it for a lean animal, and Dumfriesshire for a young deer, in Wright's time.^[17] Cotgrave's French–English dictionary (1611) glossed the French word as the base sort, scum and dregs of any company.^[6] The weakened, almost jocular sense of a mischievous person dates from 1601, in Ben Jonson;^[5][14] Barnhart puts it at about 1610.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as a mean fellow or scoundrel, deriving it from a Saxon word for a lean beast.^[18] The adjective, belonging to the rabble, was used by Spenser and Shakespeare.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1338 – a low, dishonest person.^[7][5]
• before 1382 – collective, the common people; the rabble.^[5]
• 1415 – a rabble, a mob (obsolete by 1532).^[5]
• c. 1425 – the young or lean deer of a herd (obsolete).^[5]
• 1440 – rubbish, refuse (rare, obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1475 – a person of the lowest class.^[5][7]
• 1539 – a camp follower.^[5]
• 1598 – verb, to call someone a rascal.^[5]
• 1601 – a mischievous person, often in playful reproof.^[5] Barnhart dates this use to about 1610.^[7]
• 1978 – in Papua New Guinea, a gang member or thief.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dishonest or unprincipled person; a rogue or scoundrel.^[19][2][5]
2. A mischievous person, especially a child, often said with affection: That little rascal has hidden my slippers again.^[19][5]
3. (Papua New Guinea) A member of a criminal gang; a thief.^[5]
4. (obsolete) The common people; the rabble.^[2][5][19]
5. (obsolete) A young, lean or inferior deer.^[2][5]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Belonging to the rabble; low or mean.^[2][19]

Word family

• rascally
• rascallike
• berascal
• rascality

Related words

• rapscallion
• rash
• erase
• razor
• canaille

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins