riff-raff
people with bad reputations or of a low social class
TRANSLATION
riff-raff = das Gesindel --- GOOGLE INDEX riff-raff: approximately 5,500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The new tax announced by Vladimir Putin may send a definite message to wealthy citizens to redistribute their wealth to the rest of the Russian RIFF-RAFF.
(Forbes magazine)
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He loved people of doubtful occupations and shifty purposes; and his acquaintance among the RIFF-RAFF that frequents the bars of London was enormous.
(Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham)
(Forbes magazine)
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He loved people of doubtful occupations and shifty purposes; and his acquaintance among the RIFF-RAFF that frequents the bars of London was enormous.
(Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham)
Did you
know?
riff-raff
noun, slang
- people with a bad reputation or of a low social class
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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In the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone), the mean and spiteful Draco Malfoy sneers at Potter and says: "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. Unless you're a bit politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."
The Weasleys and Hagrid riff-raff? As we like to say, consider the source of the criticism. As all Harry Potter fans know, the real riff-raff is Draco Malfoy and his little band of twits in the Slytherin class (it's interesting to note that "slither or slyther" is what snakes do when they crawl on the ground).
At first glance riff-raff appears to be a so-called reduplicate, an expression that is created by repeating the first word in a slightly different form (higgly-piggly, hokey-pokey, flim-flam, hanky-panky). However, some English language experts believe it actually stems from the medieval French phrase "rifle et rafle."
These words are from the verbs rifler, to spoil or strip, and raffler, to carry off. The phrase referred to plundering dead bodies on the battlefield and running away with whatever useful items one could find, an act that makes the escapades of Draco Malfoy seem harmless.
The phrase entered English in the form of rif and raf, which originally meant "every last scrap or piece" of something. This likely derived from the idea of taking every last item from battlefield corpses. Over the centuries rif and raf changed to riff-raff and the sense evolved to mean those despicable, low-class people that our mothers always warned us to stay away from.
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SYNONYMS
the dregs of society, the lower class, outcasts, scum, undesirables, vermin
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Stay away from the east side of town. There's lot of riff-raff there."
noun, slang
- people with a bad reputation or of a low social class
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
In the first Harry Potter book (Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone), the mean and spiteful Draco Malfoy sneers at Potter and says: "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. Unless you're a bit politer, you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riff-raff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid and it'll rub off on you."
The Weasleys and Hagrid riff-raff? As we like to say, consider the source of the criticism. As all Harry Potter fans know, the real riff-raff is Draco Malfoy and his little band of twits in the Slytherin class (it's interesting to note that "slither or slyther" is what snakes do when they crawl on the ground).
At first glance riff-raff appears to be a so-called reduplicate, an expression that is created by repeating the first word in a slightly different form (higgly-piggly, hokey-pokey, flim-flam, hanky-panky). However, some English language experts believe it actually stems from the medieval French phrase "rifle et rafle."
These words are from the verbs rifler, to spoil or strip, and raffler, to carry off. The phrase referred to plundering dead bodies on the battlefield and running away with whatever useful items one could find, an act that makes the escapades of Draco Malfoy seem harmless.
The phrase entered English in the form of rif and raf, which originally meant "every last scrap or piece" of something. This likely derived from the idea of taking every last item from battlefield corpses. Over the centuries rif and raf changed to riff-raff and the sense evolved to mean those despicable, low-class people that our mothers always warned us to stay away from.
---
SYNONYMS
the dregs of society, the lower class, outcasts, scum, undesirables, vermin
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Stay away from the east side of town. There's lot of riff-raff there."
