Scrappy scraps

I am I because my little google-search engine knows me: this is what came up when I looked for scrap + etymology, several threads relating to writing (blotter), etc. "Chiffonier" is not only a piece of furniture, but is the French word for "ragpicker," a theme I looked at a bit a few days ago. What does it mean when a human being is synonymous with a piece of furniture, a literal commodity (commode is one word for bureau) that is a depository for detritus, gladrags and doodads? The human is reified as his/her labor around the edges of the formal economy. At the same time, "chiffon" in American English has come to signify something airy and lacy, such as the meringue on top of a lemon pie or an elegantly diaphanous fabric.

scrap (1)
"small piece," late 14c., from O.N. skrap "scraps, trifles," from skrapa "to scrape" (see scrape). Meaning "remains of metal produced after rolling or casting" is from 1790. The verb meaning "to make into scrap" is recorded from 1891. Scrap iron first recorded 1823.

scrappy
"consisting of scraps, 1837, from scrap (1). Meaning "inclined to fight" (1895) is from scrap (2).

scrap (2)
"fight," 1846, possibly a variant of scrape (q.v.) on the notion of "an abrasive encounter." But Weekley suggests obsolete colloquial scrap "scheme, villainy, vile intention" (1670s). The verb is recorded from 1874. Related: Scrapped; scrapping.

scrapple
cornmeal boiled in scraps of pork, 1855, probably a dim. form of scrap (1).

scrapbook
1825, from scrap + book. As a verb, by 1889.

escrow
1590s, from Anglo-Fr. escrowe, from O.Fr. escroue "scrap, roll of parchment," from a Germanic source akin to O.H.G. scrot "scrap, shred" (see scroll (n.)). Originally "a deed delivered to a third person until a future condition is satisfied;" sense of "deposit held in trust or security" is from 1888.

blotter
1590s, "thing for drying wet spots," from blot. Meaning "bad writer" is from c.1600. Sense of "day book" is from 1670s, and the word was applied early 19c. to rough drafts, scrap books, notebooks, and draft account books. Hence the police jargon sense "arrest record sheet," recorded from 1887.

retail (v.)
mid-14c. (implied in retailing), from O.Fr. retaillier "to cut off, pare, clip, divide," from re- "back" + taillier "to cut, trim" (see tailor). Sense of "recount, tell over again" is first recorded 1590s. The noun meaning "sale in small quantities" is from early 15c., from M.Fr. retail "piece cut off, shred, scrap, paring."

chiffonier
"piece of furniture with drawers for women to put needlework, cloth, etc.," 1806, from Fr. chiffonnier, a transferred use, lit. "rag gatherer," from chiffon, dim. of chiffe "rag, piece of cloth, scrap, flimsy stuff" (see chiffon).

riffraff
late 15c., from earlier rif and raf "one and all, every scrap" (mid-14c.), from O.Fr. rif et raf, from rifler "to spoil, strip" (see rifle (v.)) and raffler "carry off," related to rafle "plundering" (see raffle).

lean (adj.)
"thin, spare, with little flesh or fat," O.E. hlæne, possibly from hlænan "cause to lean or bend," from P.Gmc. *khlainijan, which would make it related to O.E. hleonian (see lean (v.)). But perhaps rather from a PIE *qloinio- (cf. Lith. klynas "scrap, fragment," Lettish kleins "feeble").

junk (1)
"worthless stuff," mid-14c., junke "old cable or rope" (nautical), of uncertain origin, perhaps from O.Fr. junc "rush," from L. juncus "rush, reed." Nautical use extended to "old refuse from boats and ships" (1842), then to "old or discarded articles of any kind" (1884). The verb meaning "to throw away as trash, to scrap" is from 1916. Junk food is from 1971; junk art is from 1966; junk mail first attested 1954.

lacerate
1590s, from L. laceratus, pp. of lacerare "tear to pieces, mangle," from lacer "torn, mangled," from PIE base *leq- "to rend" (cf. Gk. lakis "tatter, rag," lakizein "to tear to pieces;" Rus. lochma "rag, tatter, scrap;" Albanian lakur "naked"). Related: Lacerated; lacerating.

scroll (n.)
c.1400, "roll of parchment or paper," altered (by association with rolle "roll") from scrowe (early 13c.), from Anglo-Fr. escrowe, O.Fr. escroe "scrap, roll of parchment," from Frank. *skroda "shred" (cf. M.Du. schroode "shred," O.H.G. scrot "piece cut off," Ger. Schrot "log, block, small shot"), from P.Gmc. *skrautha "something cut." The verb meaning "to write down in a scroll" is recorded from c.1600; sense of "show a few lines at a time" (on a computer or TV screen) first recorded 1981. Related: Scrolled; scrolling.

Rag

And now, a mini-love affair with the word "rag"–detritus, shamefulness, being "on the rag," being at the ragged edge, playing a syncopated rag(a) with a ragged rhythm.

Walter Benjamin writes that

the ragpicker is the most provocative figure of human misery. "Ragtag in a double sense: clothed in rags [I mistype "rages"] and occupied with rags. "Here we have a man [sic] whose job it is to pick up the day's rubbish in the capital. He collects and catalogues everything that the great city has cast off [I mistype "has to offer"], everything it has lost, and discarded, and broken. He goes through the archives of debauchery, and the jumbled array of refuse. He makes a selection, an intelligent choice; like a miser hoarding treasure, he collects the garbage that will become objects of utility or pleasure when refurbished by Industrial magic" (Du Vin et du Hashish, Oeuvres, vol. 1, pp. 249-250). As may be gathered [!!gathered!!] from this prose description of 1851, Baudelaire [and, we might postulate, Benjamin himself] recognizes himself in the figure of the ragman. The poem presents a further affinity with the poet, immediately noted as such: "a ragpicker stumbles past, wagging his head/ and bumping into walls with a poet's grace,/ pouring out his heartfelt schemes to one/ and all, including spies of the police." (Arcades Project, 345-50).

And Leo Spitzer (http://www.jstor.org/pss/2909131) traces the etymology of ragamuffin back through rigamarole to rag(e)man (the devil) and Rehoboam (?could be related to Rahab: name of a Biblical monster, from Heb. rahab, lit. "storming, against, impetuous," from rahabh "he stormed against" (cf. Arabic rahiba "he feared, was alarmed")), the overly harsh Israelite king, in Spitzer's brilliant, linguistic-detritus-gathering article "Ragamuffin, Ragman, Rigmarole, Rogue," Modern Language Notes, 62:2 (February 1947), pp. 85-93. Please note that this was published in 1947, right after the war that killed Walter Benjamin, right after the fall of the Reich that turned people like Benjamin and Spitzer into garbage, refuse, detritus. Both were writing against their own disposal, both were salvaging, scavenging every bit of human language/consciousness/activity, from the most noble to the most abject, and making strong connections between artistic practice and ragpicking.

rag (n.)
early 14c., probably from O.N. rogg "shaggy tuft," earlier raggw-, or possibly from O.Dan. rag (see rug), or a back-formation from ragged (c.1300), which is from O.N. raggaðr "shaggy," via O.E. raggig "rag-like." It also may represent an unrecorded O.E. cognate of O.N. rogg. As an insulting term for "newspaper, magazine" it dates from 1734; slang for "tampon, sanitary napkin" is attested from 1930s. Rags "personal clothing" is from 1855, Amer.Eng. Rags-to-riches "rise from poverty to wealth" is attested by 1896.

rag (v.)
"scold," 1739, of unknown origin; perhaps related to Dan. dialectal rag "grudge." Related: Ragged; ragging.

rag-bag
1820, from rag (n.) + bag. Fig. sense of "motley collection" is first recorded 1864.

raga
1788, from Skt. raga-s "harmony, melody, mode in music," lit. "color, mood," related to rajyati "it is dyed."

ragamuffin
mid-14c., from M.E. raggi "ragged" + fanciful ending (or else second element is M.Du. muffe "mitten"). Ragged was used of the devil from c.1300 in reference to "shaggy" appearance. Used by Langland as the name of a demon (cf. O.Fr. Ragamoffyn, name of a demon in a mystery play); sense of "dirty, disreputable boy" is from 1580s.

rage (n.)
c.1300, from O.Fr. raige (11c.), from M.L. rabia, from L. rabies "madness, rage, fury," related to rabere "be mad, rave." Related to rabies, of which this is the original sense. Similarly, Welsh (cynddaredd) and Breton (kounnar) words for "rage, fury" originally meant "hydrophobia" and are compounds based on the word for "dog" (Welsh ci, plural cwn; Breton ki). The verb is mid-13c., originally "to play, romp;" meaning "be furious" first recorded c.1300. Related: Raged; raging. The rage "fashion, vogue" dates from 1785.

ragged
"rough, shaggy," c.1300, pp. adj. from rag (n.), but earliest use is not directly from the main sense of that word and may reflect a broader, older meaning. Of clothes, early 14c.; of persons, late 14c.

raggedy
1890, from ragged + -y (2). Raggedy Ann doll first attested 1918. Raggedy-ass by 1930.

raghead
insulting term for "South Asian or Middle Eastern person," 1921, from rag + head.

Ragnarok
in Norse mythology, the last battle of the world, in which gods and men will be destroyed by monsters and darkness, 1770, from O.N. ragna, gen. of regin "the gods" + rök "destined end" or rökr "twilight."

ragout
1650s, from Fr. ragoût (mid-17c.), from M.Fr. ragoûter "awaken the appetite," from O.Fr. re- "back" + à "to" + goût "taste," from L. gustum (nom. gustus); see gusto.

ragtag
1820, from rag (n.) + tag; originally in expression rag-tag and bobtail "the rabble" (tag-rag and bobtail is found in 1659), from bobtail "cur," 1619. Tag and rag was "very common in 16-17th c." [OED]

ragtime
"syncopated, jazzy piano music," 1897 (in song title "Mississippi Rag" by W.H. Krell), from rag "dance ball (1895, Amer.Eng. dialect), possibly a shortening of ragged, in reference to the rhythmic imbalance.

ragtop
"convertible car," 1955, from rag + top (1).

ragweed
1790, from ragged + weed; so called from shape of the leaves. Applied to a different plant, ragwort, from 1650s. Ragwort itself is attested from mid-15c. (see wort).