c. 1300, rehersen, "to give an account of, report, tell, narrate (a story); speak or write words;" early 14c., "repeat, reiterate;" from Anglo-French rehearser, Old French rehercier (12c.) "to go over again, repeat," literally "to rake over, turn over" (soil, ground), from re- "again" (see re-) + hercier "to drag, trail (on the ground), be dragged along the ground; rake, harrow (land); rip, tear, wound; repeat, rehearse;" from herse "a harrow" (see hearse (n.)).
The meaning "to say over again, repeat what has already been said or written" is from mid-14c. in English; the sense of "practice (a play, part, etc.) in private to prepare for a public performance" is from 1570s (transitive and intransitive). Related: Rehearsed; rehearsing.
mid-13c., raspen, "to scrape, abrade by rubbing with a coarsely rough instrument or something like one," from Middle Dutch raspen and from Old French rasper (Modern French râper) "to grate, rasp," which is ultimately from a West Germanic source (compare Old English gehrespan, Old High German hrespan "to rake together") for which see raffle (n.). The vocalic sense is from 1843. Related: Rasped; rasping.
1883, from French rastaquouère, rastacouère (19c.) "social intruder, upstart" (especially one of exaggerated manners and dress, from a Mediterranean or South American country), thus "dashing but untrustworthy foreigner" [OED].
Short form rasta is attested from 1905. According to French sources, the word is from South American Spanish rastacuero "upstart," from arrastrar "to drag, pull, tow, trail along the ground" + cuero "leather." Arrastrar is said to be from Spanish rastro "rake," from Latin rastrum (see raster), while cuero is from Latin corium (see corium).
"iron bar, bent at right angles at one end, for stirring molten metal," 1864, from French râble, from Old French roable, from Latin rutabulum "rake, fire shovel" (in Medieval Latin also rotabulum), from ruere "to churn or plow up, dig out," (from PIE *reuo-, source also of Sanskrit ravisam, ravat "to wound, hurt;" Lithuanian ráuti "to tear out, pull," ravėti "to weed;" Russian ryt'i, roju "to dig," Old Church Slavonic rylo "spade," Old Norse ryja "to tear out wool," German roden "to root out").
"debauchee, man devoted to a life of pleasure and sensuality," especially in relation to women, 1800, from French roué "dissipated man, rake," originally the past participle of rouer "to break (someone) on the wheel" (15c.), from Latin rotare "roll" (see rotary).
Traditionally said to have been first applied in French c. 1720 to dissolute friends of the Duke of Orleans (regent of France 1715-23), to suggest the punishment they deserved; but it is probably rather from a secondary, figurative sense in French of "jaded, worn out," from the notion of "broken, run-over, beat down."
originally of texture, "hairy," 1530s, probably from Middle English harske "rough, coarse, sour" (c. 1300), a northern word of Scandinavian origin (compare Danish and Norwegian harsk "rancid, rank"), related to Middle Low German harsch "rough, raw," German harst "a rake;" perhaps from PIE root *kars- "to scrape, scratch, rub, card" (source also of Lithuanian karšiu, karšti "to comb," Old Church Slavonic krasta, Russian korosta "scab," Latin carduus "thistle," Sanskrit kasati "rubs, scratches"). Meaning "offensive to feelings" is from 1570s; that of "disagreeable, rude" from 1610s.
