Etymologically
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reggae

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɹɛɡeɪ/[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] The word first appears in 1968, in the song “Do the Reggay” by Toots and the Maytals.[4][2][5] The OED suggests it may be related to Jamaican Creole rege-rege (“rags, ragged clothing”), recorded by Cassidy and Le Page in the “Dictionary of Jamaican English” (1967), or to the same word in the sense "quarrel, row";[2][6][7] the American Heritage Dictionary and Barnhart explain rege-rege as a variant of raga-raga, a reduplication of rag.[8][9][4] Dictionary.com takes reggay as a dance name based on a word rege or *strege, a shabbily dressed fellow.[5] The OED quotes Toots Hibbert, who said that the name was an accident: a word streggae, used of someone who dressed badly and looked "raggedy", came out of his mouth changed into the name of the dance.[2] Allsopp compares Yoruba rege-rege (“rough, in a rough manner”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dance with bent knees and swaying movements of the upper body, done to the shuffling rhythm of the music: 1968, in the Maytals' song.[2] The name of the music itself is in the Kingston Daily Gleaner of 22 November 1968.[2]

Semantic evolution

Toots Hibbert recalled that before the song the sound had been called blue-beat and other names.[2] The music, with its strongly accented offbeat and prominent bass line,[2][7] became closely associated with the Rastafarians, through whom it spread through the Caribbean and beyond.[10][11] Allsopp notes that reggae became the standard spelling, and that the word is usually used without an article or attributively, as in reggae beat and reggae music.[10] The word gave rise to reggaeton.[2]

Timeline

  • 1968 – reggay, a dance, in the song “Do the Reggay”.[2][4]
  • 1968 – reggae, the music, in the Daily Gleaner.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A style of popular music from Jamaica, with a strongly accented offbeat and a prominent bass line, combining local styles with elements of rock 'n' roll and soul music.[3][12][2]
  2. A dance performed to this music, with bent knees and swaying movements of the upper body.[2][10]
  • rag
  • ragga
  • ragamuffin
  • reggaeton
  • ska

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c d Allsopp, Richard, ed. (1996), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins