Eggcorn Forum

Bed-raggled is one of my all-time favorites ―makes me happy every time I think of it―, and this new spelling of it is very welcome.
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( Unkept is another Ken Lakritz one, from back in aughty-four: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … 4982#p4982 . The converse has also been discussed on Linguist List , in ought-six.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2018-09-15 20:05:03)

Not to throw water on this fire (OK, maybe a little), but what exactly does “wraggle” mean? I only know it from the phrase “wriggled and wraggled.” And there is the Scots/Irish ballad “Wraggle-taggle Gypsies”-but that may just be a misspelling (or regional orthographic variant) of “raggle.”

kem wrote:

(W)hat exactly does “wraggle” mean?

I’ve done a little research on the origins of my surname, which may shed some light on the meanings of some early forms of the words under discussion. “Wragg” is purportedly a spelling variant of the name “Ragg”, an old Yorkshire County name that was listed in the Domesday Book in 1086 CE. One source says “ragg” is from an Old English word meaning “judgment”. Digging a little deeper online, I found a few differing explanations of the origins of my name, most or all of which have something to do with Vikings. One source said Wragg is from “Wraghi”, an archaic Danish given name. Another said it means “sons of Ragna” (a Norwegian Viking who was active in northern England). Another said it was from a very old word meaning “the look on a dog’s face just before it bites”! Intrigued, I wondered if it may have some connection to the word “rage”. Looking up the etymology of “rage”, we find (in the Online Etymology Dictionary) “rage (n.). c. 1300, “madness, insanity; fit of frenzy; anger, wrath; fierceness in battle; violence of storm, fire, etc.,” from Old French rage, raige “spirit, passion, rage, fury, madness” (11c.), from Medieval Latin rabia, from Latin rabies “madness, rage, fury,” related to rabere “be mad, rave” (compare rabies, which originally had this sense), from PIE *rebh- “violent, impetuous”...”. So the roots of “Wragg” could go back through the Latin “rabies”, which indeed is connected to “the look on a dog’s face just before it bites”! I hypothesize that one or more of my early ancestors was known as “Mad Dog” (in their language, some form of “ragg”)!

All of this could possibly be connected to “wraggle/ragged”, etc. by the image of something that has been torn by the teeth of a mad dog. My memory banks also have coughed up an image of a dog entertaining itself by worrying an old rag, which would become ragged in that process. And, between “rabies” and “wraggle/ragged”, etc., we have the senses of “rage”, connected with battle, storms, etc., which may leave people and things in tatters.

Last edited by Dixon Wragg (2018-09-17 03:31:22)

Fear Wragg-narÓ§k.

It has occurred to me to wonder if anyone has ever heard the word bedridden pronounced [bi’drɪdn]. Seems like it ought to be possible for somebody to analyze and thus say it that way, but I do not remember ever hearing it, and barring a confession or a crow of discovery, it’s not the sort of thing you can look for on the Internet.
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But a hypothetical verb bedride [bi’drayd] ought to mean something like ‘criticize (cf. deride?), wear down to/towards nothing’, or something that might fit at least some contexts where bedridden shows up.
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( Bedrisory unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, does not show up.)

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2018-09-19 20:45:16)