![]() ![]() "It is very hard: it is your favorite fad to draw plans." " Fad to draw plans! Do you think I only care about my fellow-creatures' houses in that childish way?" A common notion is that it is an abbreviation of "For A Day." It's compelling, but, according to early print evidence, the word appears in the 19th century to refer to something peculiar that is regularly done out of custom-not because of some transient craze. The three-letter word is of unknown origin, which means many armchair etymologists have speculated about its etymology as an acronym. ![]() The unconventionality of a ship having a rakish build influenced the use of rakish to describe other things deviating from formality and convention-but, nevertheless, eye-catching-like a hat at a rakish angle.įad applies to anything considered fashionable that is eagerly sought after or pursued, but only for a short period of time. It is based on nautical use of rake for the backward inclination of a ship's mast or the inward slope of its bow or stern. In the early 19th century, another rakish surfaces in English to describe the trim, streamlined appearance of pirate ships. The adjective rakish itself has been used to describe rakehells since the late 1600s. Ulpian Fulwell, Like Will To Like, 1568 Then, my masters, if you will awhile abide it, / Ye shall see two such knaves so lively described / That, if hell should be raked even by and by indeed, / Such another couple cannot be found, I swear by my creed. That rake is a shortening of rakehell, which is presumably derived from the phrase "to rake hell." The expression implies that a person is so bad that one would have to rake the grounds of hell to find his or her equal. You might be familiar with rake as a word for a dissolute person who leads an immoral life. ![]()
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