The pitter-patter of tiny larcenies.

Dear Word Detective: Could you please indicate the origin and definition of the word “rapscallion” or “rapscalion”? — John V. Murphy.

I’ll give it a shot. The usual spelling today is “rapscallion,” although, as we shall see, the spelling varies a bit over the history of this word and its relatives.

“Rapscallion” today is usually used to mean “a rascal” or “a scamp,” a person who may flout society’s conventions, and even, on occasion, break the law, but who falls short of being a major-league evildoer. A “rapscallion” is mischievous, not murderous, often a ne’er-do-well but never a hardened criminal. But before we get too warm and fuzzy about “rapscallions,” we should note that this tolerant connotation of the word is a fairly recent development.

“Rapscallion” first appeared in the late 17th century, but that spelling was apparently a mutation of the earlier “rascallion,” which had appeared in print in 1649. Both words originally carried a more pejorative connotation than “rapscallion” does today; the Oxford English Dictionary defines “rascallion” as “a low mean wretch or rascal.”

That definition contains the key to the origin of the word — “rascallion” is simply “rascal” with the suffix “alion” or “allion” appended. That suffix is, alas, an etymological mystery. Evidently it carried a solidly pejorative meaning back in the 17th century, because it also turns up in “tatterdemalion” (a vagrant dressed in tattered clothing) and “rampallion,” (a ruffian or villain), both of which were current at the time.

“Rascal” is a somewhat older word than “rapscallion” and its relatives, first appearing in English in the early 14th century, drawn from the Old French “rascaille,” meaning “outcast or rabble,” possibly in turn derived from “rasque,” mud or filth. “Rascal” originally simply denoted a member of the lower classes (which is bad enough, given that “filth” stuff), but by the 16th century had come to mean “an unprincipled or dishonest man.”

The transformation in the meaning of both “rapscallion” and “rascal” from “criminal” to “mischievous scamp” seems to have come from the growing use of the terms in a figurative, playful sense, a process which, in the case of “rascal,” was underway by the 17th century (“Sweet Rascal! If your love bee as earnest as your protestation, you will meete me this night at supper,” 1610). Today both “rapscallion” and “rascal” are almost entirely devoid of any real pejorative connotation. The same process has also tamed “tatterdemalion” (today meaning usually just a raggedly-dressed child) as well as “ragamuffin” (originally “Ragamoffyn,” a demon in William Langland’s 1393 epic poem “Piers Plowman,” but now meaning simply “a messy child”).

Eek.

Dear Word Detective: Could you tell me the origin of the word “skittish” please? –David Franklin.

Thanks for an interesting question. The moment I read it, of course, I realized that many readers would wonder whether “skittish” has any connection to the noun “skit” meaning a short, humorous playlet. As it happens, the two words are indeed related, but the connection is a tangled one.

Today we use “skittish” to mean “nervous, restless, fickle or unreliable,” as in “The skittish witness against the mob boss was eventually found to be living in Ulan Bator disguised as a itinerant fly swatter salesman.” Animals as well as people can be “skittish,” and one of the better definitions of the word comes courtesy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) speaking, in this case, of “skittishness” in horses: “Disposed or apt to start or be unruly without sufficient cause; given to shying or restiveness through high spirits or playfulness; unduly lively or spirited.” The general sense of “skittish” today is of a person or animal that is nervous, easily distracted or “spooked” and perhaps a bit paranoid.

The sense of “skittish” when it first appeared in English in the 15th century, however, was a bit different. As the OED puts it, “skittish” meant “Characterized by levity, frivolity, or excessive liveliness,” and many uses at the time gave the distinct impression that the person under discussion was simply not taking things as seriously as they ought (“She is like a frog in a parsley-bed, as skittish as an eel,” 1592).

The origin and development of “skittish” is, unfortunately, a bit unclear. “Skittish,” the verb “to skit” (meaning “to move lightly”), and the noun “skit” (originally meaning “a vain or frivolous woman”) all appear to be related to the Old Norse word “skjuta,” meaning “to shoot or throw.” The underlying sense of all these words seems to be something that moves lightly and quickly, perhaps unpredictably, a meaning also reflected in the use of “skit” to mean a quick shower of rain or snow, a squirt of water, and the stroke of a pen. Thus “skit” the noun, by the early 18th century, was also being used to mean a quick, biting remark or quip, a sense which, by 1820, had grown into the dramatic satire or parody known as a “skit” today.