Etymograph

English

rag

Rag comes from Middle English ragge ‘rag, cloth scrap’, from Old Norse rǫgg ‘tuft’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rawwa-reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350rǫgg‘tuft’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ragg
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ragge‘rag, cloth scrap’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1596rag

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rawwa-reconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350rǫgg‘tuft’
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150ragg
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ragge‘rag, cloth scrap’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1596rag

Earliest quotation: 1596, Edmund Spenser: “For upon the like Proclamation there, they all came…”

The story

From Middle English ragge, from Old English ragg (suggested by derivative raggiġ (‘shaggy; bristly; ragged’)), from Old Norse rǫgg (‘tuft; shagginess’), from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, probably related to *rūhaz.

Linked words

through Old Norse rǫgg ‘tuft’

rug, rugged, 1 more

Today it means

noun Tattered clothes (clothing).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *rawwa- / rag

Shirt and support for this word