Etymology

rugged

R1U1G2G2E1D2

Today it means: Broken into sharp or irregular points; uneven; not smooth; rough. Full definition →

Middle English rugged ← Old Norse rǫgg
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

rugged · adjective1

  1. Old Norse · derived fromrǫgg“tuft, shagginess”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromrugged
  3. English todayrugged

From Middle English rugged, roggyd, ruggyd, derived from Old Norse rǫgg (“tuft, shagginess”), equivalent to rug (“rough, woollen material”) + -ed. Compare Old Swedish ruggoter (“wrinkled”), Swedish rugga (“to roughen”), Swedish ruggig (“shaggy”), Icelandic rögg (“shagginess”), Old Norse raggaðr (“tufted”), dialectal Danish raggad (“shaggy”).

rugged · adjective, verb2

From rug + -ed.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.