Ruffian

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Dr. Goodword
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Ruffian

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:29 pm

• ruffian •


Pronunciation: rê-fi-ên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: Roughneck, bully, troublemaker, tough guy.

Notes: Ruffian has a huge lexical family. The quality of one may be designated as ruffianage, ruffianship, ruffianhood or ruffianism, and ruffians may be referred to collectively as ruffiandom. This word has three adjectives, ruffianly, ruffian-like and the now obsolete ruffianous (with its noun ruffianosity). Someone slightly like a ruffian may be called ruffianish. Some of these may be old fashioned, but all are in the Oxford English Dictionary.

In Play: Today's word doesn't always refer to bad guys: "Is it still true that soccer is a gentleman's game played by ruffians and rugby is a ruffian's game played by gentlemen?" That's because ruffians are less menacing than scoundrels: "Fear always attracts bullies and ruffians."

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from French ruffian "pimp, lecher, bawd", which French had borrowed from Italian ruffiano "pimp, flatterer". Italian apparently borrowed its word from Old High German hruf "scab, crust", or some adjective meaning "scabby". If so hruf came to Germanic ancestors from PIE kreup- "scab", source also of Russian krupnyi "large, coarse", Lithuanian kraupus "dreadful, terrible", and Latvian kŕaũpa "scab" and karpa "wart". Alternatively, it might have arisen from a misspelling of rough (it certainly was influenced by it). Rough comes from the same source as German rau(h) "rough" and Dutch ruig "rough". (Now let's thank an unruffianish newcomer, April Cooksey, for suggesting we examine today's historically mysterious Good Word.)
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bbeeton
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Re: Ruffian

Postby bbeeton » Tue Apr 12, 2022 8:44 pm

I always thought ruffians were mostly misdirected physically, while scoundreldom implies mental misdirection. (This certainly fits with the rugby association.)

I wonder if "scruffy" might have derived from this association; certainly after a scrum or two, that's the appearance of rugby players.

David Myer
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Re: Ruffian

Postby David Myer » Wed Apr 13, 2022 5:52 am

I agree with you Barbara. Ruffians exercise physical abuse and a scoundrel's activity is likely to be of the conman variety - bribery, blackmail, forging and that kind of activity. A scoundrel is a rogue where, as the Dr suggests, a ruffian is a bully.

And I do like the idea of association with scruffy. Physical altercations certainly tend to make the participants look scruffy.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Ruffian

Postby bnjtokyo » Wed Apr 13, 2022 7:09 am

Will one become a ruffian if one consumes a fiasco of Ruffino chianti?

bbeeton
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Re: Ruffian

Postby bbeeton » Wed Apr 13, 2022 11:35 am

I don't think I'd be likely to become a ruffian, but I would almost certainly end up scruffy if I consumed an entire fiasco of any kind of chianti.


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