Etymology

ragamuffin

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Today it means: A dirty, shabbily-clothed child; an urchin. Full definition →

Middle English Ragamuffyn
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromRagamuffyn
  2. English todayragamuffin

From the Middle English Ragamuffyn. Of uncertain origin, according to Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: A muffin is a poor thing of a creature, a ‘regular muff’; so that a ragamuffin is a sorry creature in rags.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.