rummage

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French arrumage (“the arranging of cargo in a ship's hold”),^[2][3][4][5] modern French arrimage,^[2][5][6] with the loss of the unstressed first syllable.^[2][7] Ayto gives a reduced Anglo-Norman form, Anglo-Norman *rumage, as the immediate source.^[8][9] The French noun is formed from arrumer (“to stow goods in a ship's hold”) and -age.^[2][3] The OED takes that verb from Middle Dutch rūmen, also ruymen,^[2] and Word Origins likewise from Dutch.^[10] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and Ayto make it a variant of Old French aruner, formed from a- (“to”) and run (“ship's hold”), itself from Middle Dutch ruim (“space”),^[9][6][8] a relative of room.^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline say only that the second part is probably Germanic, comparing Old Norse rúm (“compartment in a ship”) and Old High German rūm (“space”),^[4][3] and the American Heritage Dictionary routes the French verb through Old Occitan arumar, with run as only a possible source.^[11] Etymonline also allows that the whole word is simply room with -age,^[3] but the OED treats roomage as a later formation, and some early spellings as an association with that noun.^[2] Medieval Latin rumagium and roumagium appear in British sources from the late 13th century, which may imply that the French noun was current earlier.^[2] Weekley, citing a record of 1390–93 for a word used of wine casks, thought the English word came with the wine trade.^[12] The sense "commotion" probably began separately as rummish, to roar, with a voiced final consonant, and was soon associated with the cargo word.^[2] Collins glosses that Scots verb as to roar or protest.^[13] The verb comes from the noun by conversion.^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The arranging or rearranging of cargo, especially casks, in a ship's hold: 1486, in the Cely Papers.^[2][14] Barnhart and Weekley have the noun from 1526,^[4][12] Etymonline from the 1520s.^[3] The verb, to stow cargo, is recorded from 1544.^[2][15][4]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins observes that the word has reversed its meaning, from putting a cargo in order to making a mess while searching.^[10] The change ran through the ship's hold: the verb went from stowing cargo (1544) and setting a hold in order by rearranging it (1578) to making a thorough search of a ship or its hold (1607),^[2][8] then to searching any place or heap of things, thoroughly but untidily (1621; intransitive 1625).^[2][8][10] Barnhart first finds "search thoroughly" before 1616, in Beaumont and Fletcher.^[4] Weekley explains the later senses by the dragging about and confusion that went with stowing cargo.^[12] Meanwhile "to disorder, stir up" appears in 1591, in Raleigh,^[2] which Etymonline also dates to the 1590s.^[3] Trench (1859) took the word as a sea term for packing goods with the greatest possible roomage, and quoted Phillips's dictionary, where it is already also "to rake into, or to search narrowly".^[16] Johnson (1755) knew only the later uses: "to search; to plunder; to evacuate".^[17] The noun followed at a distance: "a search" dates from 1733 in the OED,^[2] from Walpole's letters of 1753 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[4][3] The noun also gained the sense "accumulated odds and ends, junk" (1598),^[2] now chiefly south-western English and North American,^[2] and recorded in the English Dialect Dictionary from Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.^[18] From it came the rummage sale, a sale of such goods (1756), first of unclaimed or left-over goods at docks and warehouses,^{[2][3][4][12]} then from 1890 a charity sale, chiefly in North America.^[2] Customs officers have rummaged ships since at least 1734.^[2] In Scotland the noun still means uproar,^[2][15] and the verb to rage or storm.^[18] The hold also gave slang a sexual sense, in use from 1665.^[19]

Timeline

• 1486 – noun, the arranging of cargo in a hold (obsolete by 1688).^[2]
• 1544 – verb, to stow cargo in a hold (obsolete by 1725).^[2][15][4]
• 1575 – commotion, loud noise.^[2]
• 1578 – verb, to set a ship or hold in order by rearranging the cargo.^[2]
• 1591 – verb, to disorder, stir up.^[2]
• 1598 – miscellaneous articles, junk.^[2]
• 1607 – verb, to search a ship or its hold thoroughly.^[2] Etymonline has it by the 1610s.^[3]
• 1621 – verb, to search a place or a heap of things thoroughly but untidily.^[2]
• 1665 – slang, to have sexual intercourse.^[19]
• 1693 – verb, to find by searching, with out or up.^[2]
• 1733 – noun, a thorough but unsystematic search.^[2] Barnhart has it from 1753.^[4]
• 1734 – verb, to search a ship in a customs inspection; the noun follows in 1757.^[2]
• 1756 – rummage sale, a sale of rummage goods.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1803, the Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1809 and Barnhart to 1858.^[3][15][4]
• 1890 – rummage sale, a jumble sale.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To search thoroughly and untidily, moving things about: She rummaged in the glovebox for a pen.^[13][2][15]
2. To search a place or a mass of things in this way; to ransack: The boys rummaged the shed for a ladder.^[15][2][18]
3. To find or bring out by searching, usually with out or up.^[2][18]
4. To search a ship for contraband, in a customs inspection.^[15][2]
5. To put into confusion; to disorder.^[15][6]
6. (obsolete, 1544–1725) To stow or rearrange cargo in a ship's hold.^[2][15][6]
7. (obsolete, 1578–1673) To set a ship or hold in order by rearranging its cargo.^[2][15]

Noun

1. A thorough, disordered search among things: a quick rummage through the attic.^[13][15][2]
2. A confused mixture of articles; odds and ends, junk.^{[13][15][2][18]}
3. A search of a ship by a customs officer.^[2][6]
4. (chiefly Scottish) Noisy bustle; uproar.^[15][2]
5. (obsolete, 1486–1688) The arranging of cargo in a ship's hold.^[2][6]

Word family

• rummager
• unrummaged
• rummage sale

Related words

• room
• roomage
• rummish

References

1. ^ 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 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d e 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)
19. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com