The story
- Germanic · derived from
- Old French · derived fromraffer“to wear away”
- English todayraffish
From late 18th century raff (“persons among the lowest class in society”) + -ish, still retained in contemporary English with riffraff. From Old French raffer (“to wear away”), of Germanic origin. Compare German raffen. Compare rip (“to tear”), rap (“to snatch”).
Words from the same roots
Old Frenchraffer all →
raff
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.