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Etymology and origin of the English word ruff

Merriam-Webster gives three separate origins for the main words spelled ruff,[1] and the OED, revising them in 2011, lists eleven nouns and five verbs of this spelling.[2]

Pronunciation

ruff1 fish

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1440 Promptorium Parvulorum
From
Middle English roffe

Etymology

The fish is inherited from Middle English roffe, also ruffe and rowe,[4][5][1] probably a noun use of rough, from the prickly scales or the texture of the skin.[2][6][7][8][9][1] The OED notes that John Caius named the freshwater fish New Latin aspredo (“roughness”) in 1570, perhaps after its English name;[2][10] Weekley saw the same idea in it.[10] The MED and the American Heritage Dictionary connect the word instead with Medieval Latin rufus (“a kind of fish”), from rūfus (“red, tawny”),[4][5] but the OED rejects this because the early spellings show a short vowel.[2] The spelling ruffe is still used for the fish.[8][1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sea bream or similar sea fish: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses it with Latin sparrus.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The name first denoted a sea bream,[2][4] a sense obsolete by the 17th century in the Shorter Oxford and by 1855 in the OED.[11][2] By about 1450 it was used of the small freshwater fish of the perch family, in a treatise on fishing that lists the bait for the roach, the gudgeon and the ruff.[4][2] In Australia the name passed to the tommy rough or Australian herring, from 1858.[2][11] In American use Merriam-Webster also records it for the pumpkinseed.[1]

Timeline

  • 1440 – a sea bream or other sea fish (obsolete).[2][4]
  • c. 1450 – the small freshwater fish of the perch family.[2][4]
  • 1858 – in Australia, the tommy rough or Australian herring.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small Eurasian freshwater fish of the perch family, Gymnocephalus cernuus, with rough prickly scales; also spelled ruffe.[8][1][2]
  2. In Australia, the tommy rough or Australian herring, Arripis georgianus.[2][11]
  3. The pumpkinseed, a North American sunfish.[1]
  4. (obsolete, 1440–1855) A sea bream.[2][11][4]

ruff2 collar

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
c. 1523 Fitzherbert, The Book of Husbandry

Etymology

The collar is probably a back-formation from ruffle,[12][13][7][8][1][14][5] which Partridge explains as perhaps ultimately imitative.[15] The OED, revising the entry in 2011, takes it instead as perhaps a noun use of rough,[2] and the Shorter Oxford and Hoad as a noun use of a variant of that adjective.[11][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ruffle or frill around the sleeve of a garment at the wrist: c. 1523, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline also date the sleeve sense to 1523 or the 1520s.[13][12]

Semantic evolution

From the sleeve the word passed to a frill worn round the neck, recorded from 1555:[2][13][12] the starched and pleated collar typical of Elizabethan and Jacobean dress,[2][8] which according to Barnhart was said to hide the swollen glands of scrofula.[13] Etymonline notes that ruffs were most common in the late 16th and the 17th centuries.[12] The verb, to form into a ruff, followed in 1548,[2] and in falconry a hawk was said to ruff its prey when it struck without seizing it (1575–1686).[2][11] From 1622 anything that encircles something like a ruff could be called one.[2] A collar of feathers or hair round the neck of a bird or animal is called a ruff from 1649.[2] Hoad and Partridge take the name of the sandpiper Philomachus pugnax, recorded from about 1605, as a transferred use, after the large ruff of the male in the breeding season;[6][15][8] the OED calls the bird's name of uncertain origin, since the female's name reeve is not explained by it, and mentions an argument for a dialect reflex of Old English hrēoh (“rough”), for which early evidence is lacking.[2][10] Johnson (1755) defined the ruff as a puckered linen ornament formerly worn about the neck, quoting Shakespeare.[16] In North America it is also a fringe of fur round the edge of a hood (1916).[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1523 – a frill around the sleeve of a garment (now rare).[2][13]
  • 1548 – verb, to form into a ruff; to provide with ruffs.[2]
  • 1555 – a frill worn around the neck; the starched pleated collar of Elizabethan dress.[2][13][1]
  • 1575 – verb, in falconry, of a hawk, to strike the quarry without seizing it (obsolete).[2]
  • 1590 – verb, of a bird, to raise or spread its feathers.[2]
  • c. 1605 – the sandpiper Philomachus pugnax.[2]
  • 1649 – a collar of feathers or hair round the neck of a bird or animal.[2] Barnhart dates this sense to 1698, and Etymonline to the 1690s.[13][12]
  • 1916 – in North America, a fringe of fur round a hood or neckline.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A large round collar of starched, pleated or fluted linen or lace, worn by men and women in the 16th and 17th centuries.[8][1][2]
  2. A fringe of long hair or feathers round the neck of a bird or mammal: the ruff of a lion.[8][1][2]
  3. A Eurasian sandpiper, Philomachus pugnax, the male of which grows a large ruff of feathers in the breeding season; also, the male of this bird.[8][2]
  4. In North America, a fringe of fur along the edge of a hood or neckline.[2]
  5. (obsolete) A ruffle or frill round the sleeve of a garment.[2][11]

Verb

  1. To form into a ruff, or to provide with a ruff.[2][11][1]
  2. Of a bird, to raise or spread out its feathers.[2][1]
  3. (obsolete, 1575–1686) In falconry, of a hawk, to strike its prey without seizing it.[2][11][1]

Word family

  • ruffed
  • rufflike

ruff3 trumping at cards

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1577 Misogonus
Borrowed from
Middle French roffle

Etymology

The card term is perhaps borrowed from Middle French roffle, recorded in French from 1537, earlier roufle (1464) and ronfle (1414), the name of a card game;[2][11][6][1][7] the OED also allows a borrowing from Italian ronfa,[2] which is probably shortened from trionfo (“triumph; trump”).[2][11][12] Weekley took the French and Italian words as arbitrary alterations of French triomphe, and Klein as a corruption of it,[10][7] so that the word would be related to trump and triumph.[12][6] The American Heritage Dictionary instead derives the French name from renfler (“to rise, swell”), from īnflō (“to blow into, inflate”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A card game popular in the 16th and 17th centuries: c. 1577, in the play Misogonus.[2] Merriam-Webster also dates it to 1577,[1] and Etymonline to the 1580s.[12]

Semantic evolution

The old game, a forerunner of whist, was in vogue in about 1590–1630.[12][1] In Florio's Italian dictionary of 1598 the word also named the trump in this game, and the verb meant to hold the trump and draw cards from the stock.[2] Cotgrave glossed the French ronfle as "hand-ruffe at cards", and Florio the Italian ronfa as "a game at cardes called ruffe or trumpe".[10] The game survived in later use as ruff and honours.[2] The modern verb, to play a trump when one cannot follow suit, is recorded from 1760,[2][12] and the noun, an act of trumping, from 1813 in whist,[2] although Etymonline dates it to 1856.[12] In bridge a ruff is also the winning of a trick by trumping in one hand while discarding a loser from the other (1939).[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1577 – a card game, forerunner of whist (now historical).[2][1]
  • 1598 – the trump in this game; verb, to hold the trump and exchange cards from the stock (obsolete).[2]
  • 1760 – verb, to play a trump on a card or suit when unable to follow suit.[2][12]
  • 1813 – noun, an act of trumping in whist.[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1856.[12]
  • 1939 – in bridge, a trick won by trumping in one hand while discarding from the other.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. In whist and bridge, the act of playing a trump when one cannot follow the suit led; a trick won in this way.[1][2][11]
  2. (historical) A card game of the 16th and 17th centuries from which whist developed.[1][2][11]

Verb

  1. To play a trump on a card or a trick when unable to follow suit: She ruffed the second round of spades.[1][2][11]

Word family

  • crossruff
  • overruff

Usage notes

A further ruff, a drum roll of three quick strokes followed by a fourth (1688), is probably imitative of the sound;[2][1][11] in Scotland the verb also meant to applaud by stamping the feet.[2][17][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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)
  5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  15. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Ruff.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/ruff. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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