Rug

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Rug

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Aug 22, 2014 11:15 pm

In reading novels set in carriage days or with the early advent of the motor car, i find people wrapping 'rugs' around themselves. "What ho," cry I, "are the ripping up the carpet?"
Of course not. Consulting the dictionaries, I found the word as so used is closer to the original meaning of heavy cloth that evolved into a floor covering:

rug (n.)
1550s, "coarse fabric," of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialectal rugga "coarse coverlet," from Old Norse rogg "shaggy tuft," from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, perhaps related to rag (n.) and rough (adj.). Sense evolved to "coverlet, wrap" (1590s), then "mat for the floor" (1808). Meaning "toupee" is theater slang from 1940. Cut a rug "dance" is slang first attested 1942. To sweep (something) under the rug in the figurative sense is from 1954.
(OEtymD)
Still, with the slang, it's more widespread than one might expect at first thought.
pl

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: Rug

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Aug 31, 2014 1:12 am

Do you remember the days when your progeny were puking and mewing on the rug? [Please don't be offended, I am merely paraphrasing Shakespeare.] We called them rug-rats. :D
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

Perry Lassiter
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 3333
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
Location: RUSTON, LA
Contact:

Re: Rug

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sun Aug 31, 2014 5:11 pm

Hush, Philip, I've been trying to forget those days.
pl


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 31 guests