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rouse

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Etymology and origin of the English word rouse

Pronunciation

rouse1 to awaken, stir up

Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1460 a book of arms
Inherited from
Middle English rousen

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English rousen, also rowsen,[2][3][4] first a technical term of hawking and hunting, and its origin is unknown.[5][6][7][8] Because so many hawking terms are French, it is often taken to be of French, perhaps Anglo-Norman, origin;[5][9][4][6] the Middle English Dictionary, Etymonline, Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary suggest Old French rëuser (“to drive back, repel”), also ruser,[2][9][4][10] which the American Heritage Dictionary derives from Vulgar Latin *recūsō, from Latin recūsō (“to refuse”).[10][9] The OED finds that verb too different in sense to be convincing, and also rejects a borrowing from the Scandinavian verb seen in Danish ruse and Swedish rusa.[5] The Middle English Dictionary and Etymonline compare 16th-century Middle French rousee (“abrupt movement”).[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a bird in a heraldic charge, rising: about 1460, in the participle rowsyng in a book of arms.[2][4] The hawking sense, of a hawk shaking its feathers, follows before 1475 in a book of hawking.[2][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Like many hunting words, rouse spread from the field to general use.[9] From 1531 it meant to make game rise from cover,[5][9] and since about 1565 it has been used of stirring people up, inciting them, or bringing them to a state of excitement.[5] Making someone wake from sleep is recorded from the 1590s,[9][4] and by 1593 the variant arouse had been formed on the pattern of such pairs as rise and arise.[4][11] Palsgrave (1530) recorded it for stretching one's body, as a wrestler does before a bout.[5][11] The noun rouse followed from the verb: a shake of the feathers (1589), a stir or commotion (1764) and, in the army, a bugle call to get up (1789).[5][12] In Australian and New Zealand English, rouse on means to scold (1896), perhaps an extended use of this verb, perhaps of roust.[5][13][14] In Scottish dialect the verb was also used of stirring a fire, and in several dialects of being stirred to anger.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1460 – rowsyng, of birds in heraldry, rising.[2][4]
  • before 1475 – of a hawk, to shake its feathers.[5][2]
  • 1530 – to stretch one's body (obsolete by 1640).[5]
  • 1531 – to make game rise from cover.[5][9]
  • 1541 – to stir oneself to action.[5]
  • c. 1565 – to stir up, incite, excite.[5]
  • 1590s – to wake someone from sleep.[9][4]
  • 1764 – noun, a stir or commotion.[5][3]
  • 1843 – to provoke, annoy.[5]
  • 1896 – in Australia, rouse on, to scold.[5][13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To wake someone from sleep or unconsciousness, or to wake up: The alarm roused him at dawn.[14][3]
  2. To stir up, provoke or excite: The speech roused the crowd to anger.[14][3]
  3. To make oneself active or energetic.[14][5]
  4. (hunting) To make game rise from cover.[14][5]
  5. (falconry) Of a hawk, to raise and shake its feathers.[14][5][3]
  6. (Australia, New Zealand) rouse on: to scold.[14][5][12]

Noun

  1. An act of rousing; a stir or commotion.[3][5]
  2. (military) A signal to get up, played on the bugle after reveille.[5][12]

Word family

  • rouser
  • rousing
  • arouse
  • rabble-rouse
  • rouseabout
  • unroused

rouse2 full draught, carousal

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Clipping
First attested
1593 before 1593, Marlowe's Doctor Faustus
Ultimate origin
German gar aus

Etymology

The full draught of drink is probably a shortening of carouse,[5][3][12][7][8][16] from a misunderstanding of the phrase “drink carouse” as “drink a rouse”.[5][3][12][8][11] The phrase goes back, through French carous, to the German phrase gar aus (“quite out”) in “gar aus trinken”, to drink up completely.[10][9] Collins, Weekley and Johnson compare Danish rus (“intoxication”) and German Rausch (“drunkenness”),[14][11][17] and the OED reports the suggestion of a borrowing from the Danish word, cognate with Swedish rus and Dutch roes, but finds the shortening of carouse a better explanation of both form and meaning.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A full cup or glass of wine or beer, especially one drunk as a toast: before 1593, in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.[5] Merriam-Webster dates the sense to about 1593.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is best known from Hamlet (1604), where the king takes his rouse, and it also meant a drinking bout from that time.[5][11][17] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes an earlier Hey rowse, fill all the pottes in the house from the interlude Trial of Treasure (1567).[13] Johnson (1755) defined it as too large a dose of liquor.[17] The phrase give a rouse, to make a toast, was used by Browning in 1842.[5] The word is now archaic.[3][12][7]

Timeline

  • before 1593 – a full glass of drink, especially as a toast, also in take one's rouse.[5][3]
  • 1604 – a drinking bout, in Hamlet.[5]
  • 1842 – give a rouse, to make a toast.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A full draught of drink, especially drunk as a toast.[3][12][5]
  2. (archaic) A carousal or drinking bout.[3][12][5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ 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 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  17. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
Cite this entry

“Rouse.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/rouse. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·