The story
- Middle English · inherited fromruff(e)
- English todayruffe
From Middle English ruff(e), roffe (“a saltwater fish, esp. of the family Sparidae; the freshwater fish Gymnocephalus cernua”), of uncertain origin. Theories include: * Perhaps an alteration of rough, referring to its scales. * Perhaps from Latin rufus (“red”), referring to the colour of some Sparidae fish.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.