LL-L "Etymology" 2008.11.30 (04) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 30 November 2008 - Volume 04
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From: Jorge Potter <jorgepot at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.11.24 (06) [LS]

Follow-up on

Joachim Kreimer-de Fries <Kreimer at jpberlin.de>

Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2008.11.24 (02) [LS]

Bedrept: engelsk "rag", "ragged", (vgl. auk "ragtime", "ragman" u. a.)



Dear Joachim Kreimer-de Fries and the rest of you,



I would like to point out the first usage of "rag-time" recorded in the OED
as of 1901 "The coon song with its rag-time accompaniment." Of course the
quotation was highly disrespectful of blacks, even at that time. OED makes
no attempt at the word's derivation.



*Maestro* Scott Joplin, himself, expressed his opinion on this matter.
According to Rudi Blesh's article, "Scott Joplin:  Black-American
Classicist" in my 1971 NY Pub Libr Edition of "Scott Joplin, Collected Piano
Works" [in America, ragtime's] "very name was an epithet, a scornful,
belittling term with strong racial overtones. Conscious of this, Joplin
himself called the appellation 'scurrilous'" Nevertheless, he used the word
all the time.



One rag he wrote was entitled "Original Rags" The sheet nusic was printed
with a cover showing a decrepit old black man with a corncob pipe in his
mouth, picking rags from the ground and stuffing them in a bag in front of a
decrepit house, while a decrepit dog looks on. The text on the cover says

ORIGINAL RAGS

Picked by Scott Joplin

Arranged by Charles N. Daniels

Published by Carl Hoffman, Kansas City, Mo.



So now we know that musically "rag" means a piece of old cloth from Old
English *ragge*, related to *rugged* and Old Norse *rögg* = tuft.



Jorge Potter
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