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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-735/
- Published: 2026-08-22T18:15:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-22T18:15:33.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

raffish (adjective) -

1: marked by or suggestive of flashy vulgarity or crudeness  
2: marked by a careless unconventionality : rakish

Source : [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/raffish?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : Raffish sounds like it should mean "resembling raff." But what is raff? Originally, "raff" was a word meaning "rubbish"; it derived from Middle English "raf," and it was being used for trash and refuse back in the 1400s. Around a century later, English speakers were also using the word riffraff to mean "disreputable characters" or "rabble." The origins of "riffraff" are distinct from the "rubbish" sense of "raff"; "riffraff" derived from an Anglo-French phrase meaning "one and all." By the mid-1500s, the similarities between "raff" and "riffraff" had prompted people to start using the two words as synonyms, and "raff" gained a "rabble" sense. It was that ragtag "raff" that gave rise to the adjective "raffish" in the late 1700s.

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