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raggaðr

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Etymology and origin of the Old Norse word raggaðr

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1306 Ragnarssona þáttr More words from the 14th century
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *rawwō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old Norse raggaðr
English ragged

Forms

raggaðr adjective[1][2]

Etymology

It is probably formed from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft, shag of a cloak”) + -aðr, “furnished with tufts”.[3][4][5] Köbler traces rǫgg to Proto-Germanic *rawwō.[6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon relates it to rýja (“to pluck wool”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first dated in Ragnarssona þáttr of 1306, of dress: þa for hann í raggað klæði, brœkr ok kapu “then he put on shaggy clothes, breeches and a cloak”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective describes rough, shaggy cloth;[4] Cleasby and Vigfússon list raggaðar-klæði as another name for rǫggvarklæði, a cloak woven with tufts.[4] Most of ONP's records are Norwegian charters of 1318–1331, where it is a byname, Œystæin raggadr.[2][3] De Vries compares Norwegian raggad “shaggy”.[5]

Timeline

  • 1306 – í raggað klæði “into shaggy clothes” in Ragnarssona þáttr.[2]
  • 1318 – Œystæin raggadr, a byname, in a Norwegian diploma.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. shaggy, ragged; furnished with tufts of wool.[2][4][1]
  2. as a byname.[2][3]

Descendants

  • Icelandic raggaður[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. raggaðr
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. raggaðr
  3. ^ a b c Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. raggaður
  4. ^ a b c d Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 481
  5. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 431
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. rǫgg
  7. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. rögg
Cite this entry

“Raggaðr.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/non/ragga%C3%B0r. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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