roguish

Etymology

It is formed from English rogue + -ish.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the earlier adjective roguing.^[2] Rogue itself is of unknown origin,^[2][6][7] perhaps connected with the cant word roger for a begging vagabond,^[2][8][3] and the Oxford Dictionary of English takes it as probably from Latin rogō (“to ask, beg”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to or characteristic of a rogue, at first also of a tramp or vagrant: 1572, in an Act of 14 Elizabeth I.^[2][7] Etymonline gives the 1570s and Dictionary.com the range 1565–75.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed the noun, which meant an idle vagrant or sturdy beggar in the 1560s, a dishonest rascal by the 1570s and, in playful or affectionate use, a mischievous person by the 1590s.^[3] The sense "playfully mischievous" is dated very differently: Etymonline has the 1580s, the OED 1603, in Florio's Montaigne, and the Shorter Oxford the late 17th century.^[3][2][4] From 1601 to 1684 it could also express plain disapproval, as "vile" or "wretched".^[2] Johnson (1755) still kept all three stages apart: vagrant, with a quotation from Spenser; knavish; and waggish, with Dryden's "the most roguish cast" and Addison's "a thousand roguish tricks".^[10] Only the last two remain current.^[11][7] From 1762 to 1878 it was also used of a plant, for inferior or degenerate.^[2] roguishness is recorded from the late 16th century and roguishly from the early 17th.^[4]

Timeline

• 1572 – relating to or characteristic of a rogue, formerly also of a tramp or vagrant.^[2][7]
• 1575 – of a person, behaving like a rogue; villainous, dishonest.^[2]
• 1601 – expressing disapproval: vile, wretched (obsolete by 1684).^[2]
• 1603 – playfully mischievous, arch.^[2]
• 1762 – of a plant, inferior, degenerate (obsolete by 1878).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Playfully mischievous; arch or waggish: a roguish smile across the table.^[11][7][2]
2. Dishonest or unprincipled; like a rogue: a roguish landlord who kept every deposit.^[11][7][2]
3. (obsolete) Being or relating to a vagrant or tramp.^[2][10]

Word family

• roguishly
• roguishness

Related words

• rogue
• roguery

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins