The story
- Middle English · derived fromransaken“to pillage”
- English todayramshackle
First attested in 1830, a back-formation from ramshackled, from ransackled, past participle of ransackle (“to ransack”), frequentative of Middle English ransaken (“to pillage”).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishransaken all →
ransack
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.