"the describing of events in writing," 1898, a French word in English, from French rapportage, literally "tale-telling," from rapporter "to bring back; refer to" (see rapport).
"person who prepares an account of the proceedings of a committee, etc., for a higher body," 1791, from French rapporteur "tell-tale, gossip; reporter," from rapporter "bring back; refer to," Old French reporter (see report (v.)). The word was earlier in English in the now-obsolete sense of "a reporter" (c. 1500).
"A rascally, disorderly, or despicable person" [Century Dictionary], 1690s, alteration of rascallion (1640s), a fanciful elaboration of rascal (q.v.). It had a parallel in now-extinct rampallion (1590s), from Middle English ramp (n.2) "ill-behaved woman." Also compare rascabilian (1620s). Rapscallionry "rascals collectively" is marked "[Rare.]" in Century Dictionary (1897); Galsworthy used rapscallionism.
late 14c., "carried away in an ecstatic trance," from Latin raptus, past participle of rapere "seize, carry off" (see rape (v.)). A figurative sense, the notion is of being "carried up into Heaven" (bodily or in a dream), as in a saint's vision.
The Latin literal sense of "carried away" also was in English from 1550s. Essentially an alternative past participle of rape, in 15c.-17c. the word also sometimes could mean "raped." The sense of "engrossed" is recorded from c. 1500.
As a Latin past-participle adjective, in English it spawned unthinking the back-formed verb rap "to affect with rapture," which was common c. 1600-1750. Before that, there was a verb rapt "seize or grasp, seize and carry off; ravish" (1570s), also "enrapture, transport as with ecstasy" (1590s). There also was a noun rapt in 15c. meaning both "rapture" and "rape."
late 14c., raptour, "a plundering bird of prey;" c. 1600, "ravisher, abductor," from Latin raptor "a robber, plunderer, abductor, ravisher," agent noun from past-participle stem of rapere "to seize" (see rapid). Modern ornithological use is by 1873, from Raptores, the order name of the birds of prey (1823, a Latin plural).
"to enrapture, put in a state of rapture," 1630s (implied in raptured), from rapture (n.). Related: Rapturing.
c. 1600, "act of carrying off" as prey or plunder, from rapt + -ure, or else from French rapture, from Medieval Latin raptura "seizure, rape, kidnapping," from Latin raptus "a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape" (see rapt). The earliest attested use in English is with women as objects and in 17c. it sometimes meant rape (v.), which word is a cognate of this one.
The sense of "spiritual ecstasy, state of mental transport or exaltation" is recorded by c. 1600 (raptures). The connecting notion is a sudden or violent taking and carrying away. The meaning "expression of exalted or passionate feeling" in words or music is from 1610s.
