- rough (n.)
- late 15c., "broken ground," from rough (adj.). Specific sense in golf is from 1901. Phrase in the rough first recorded 1823. Meaning "a rowdy" is first attested 1837.
- rough (adj.)
- Old English ruh "rough, untrimmed, uncultivated," from West Germanic *rukhwaz "shaggy, hairy, rough" (cf. Middle Dutch ruuch, Dutch ruig, Old High German ruher, German rauh), from Proto-Germanic *rukhaz. The original -gh- sound was guttural, as in Scottish loch. Sense of "approximate" is first recorded c.1600. Rough draft is from 1690s. Rough-and-ready is from 1810, originally military; rough-and-tumble (1810) is from the prize ring.
- rough (v.)
- late 15c., from rough (adj.). Phrase rough it (1768) is originally nautical; to rough (someone) up is from 1868. Related: Roughed; roughing. The U.S. football penalty roughing was originally a term from boxing (1866).