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[–] 58 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

A rake, a knave, a cur, a lout, a scoundrel.

As far as etymology, it's derived from "rascallion", the long form of "rascal", which itself is derived from the French term "rascaille", which refers to a mob.

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  • [–] 26 points 1 month ago* (4 children)

    A rogue, a ne'er do well, a persona non grata

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  • [–] 17 points 1 month ago (3 children)
  • [–] 53 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    rap scallion

    That's a hip-hop vegetable. You mean "rapscallion."

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  • [–] 28 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    A scallion, skilled in freestyle hip-hop

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Well, I'm pretty sure it's just one word for starters.

    I've always read 'rapscallion' as a sort of youthful miscreant: an almost gender-neutral mildly negative label applied to a person lacking the wisdom of age who is engaged with some slightly rebellious activity.

    The word died about the time of ww2, when most of those erstwhile rapscallions became war veterans or casualties.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    Those rapscallions veterans would go on to accuse the the next generation of rapscallions of being punks.

    Edit: Just checked if YouTube had a supercut of WIlliam Shatner's TJ Hooker calling kids "punk"", but alas: nothing.

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Fair. But my wueseuj was to mean, why is it a bad thing? What is a rap scallion? Sort of one how “asshole” is a derogatory, and it’s… well, an asshole. No one wants to be one. So why is a rapscallion bad?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Most societies historically had some form of negative pressure applied to post-adolescents who refuse to accept adult responsibilities.

    Of course, you said not to search so I'm just spitballing here.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    It's a type of onion that was especially stinky and hard to cook with, then it turned into an insult for rambunctious youth

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    it's a green onion, with flow.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

    I got called this by an old guy back when i was a kid in the 90s. Im assuming it means cunt or something like that

    Edit: Im in australia, everything means cunt at some point

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    A ne'er-do-well scalliwag of the utmost miscreant order.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I mis-asked the question. I mean, the origin of the term. Like where did it come from?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago*

    My guess is that it descended from "rascal", or is closely related. I know a lot of French and some Spanish and Italian, and I don't think "rascal" appears in those languages, so it can't come from Latin/Greek. But, it doesn't sound Anglo Saxon or Germanic, so I reckon it might be Shakespearian, he introduced loads of new words like this.

    Edit: I have just googled, I was mostly wrong. "Rascal" comes from Latin through old French, then "rapscallion" evolved in English in the 17th century to be able to add spoken emphasis. It's just easier to contemptuously spit "you rapscallion" than "you rascal".

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    One word. Rapscallion.

    It's a general insult, like 'low life' or creep' or 'sleazoid.'

    An untrustworthy knave.

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  • [–] [S] 0 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Right, but… origin. How didn’t come to mean that? What does it mean outside of the derogatory?

    A scallion is an ocean fairing creature. So… what’s a rapscallion? And why is it bad?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

    A scallion is a green onion. A scallop is an ocean-faring creature.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    He's the vegan in a trio with the Rhymenoceros and the Hiphopopotamus.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago
    [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    A mischevious youth.

    "Damn hippies" except with a hint of "damn you kids".

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    A step above a skallywag.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Usually applied to a rambunctious and disobedient child.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    That's a green onion with hella flow, put them on the record.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    I'm almost certain it's a fancification of the word rascal. Like some dude in 1750 said 'what's rascal short for?' and his quick witted friend said rapscallion and yada yada now it's a word.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    There was a travelling circus that had a lion, and during its performances they noticed it did much better if they played certain kinds of music. This lion was into rap and ska, so they called it rap-ska-lion and rapscallion describes its personality.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    someone who is so much of a rascal that they're being an onion about it

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    A rapscallion is a little stinker

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Vegetable. Same family as pop-tatoes. Usually eaten with rock salt, though some people cooked them with ska-rrots and punkins.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    A rascal. Someone who causes mischief, but in a mostly harmless way. It's not evil and greed, that motivates them, it's more like trolling.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    It's an older generations punk onion.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago
    [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    A cheeky fucker

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I always thought it was Rab Scalliron who was a famous Glaswegian prankster from the 1700's

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (6 children)

    For the origin of the word, I'm guessing it either has something to do with bad breath, or is a repurposed term from another language, likely mispronounced or misunderstood by English speakers.

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    Someone googled it. Thought would be fun, but I guess it’s over.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (3 children)

    I thought it was fun. After looking it up myself I learned:

    SpoilerI was definitely wrong, but got one aspect partially right. Rascallian came from rascal, which was originally a French word (rascaile) for the "people of the lowest class, the general mass; rabble or foot-soldiers of an army" source

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    Close! Awesome job! I don’t think I’d have gotten anywhere near that. I was already confusing it with scallops. LOL.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago
    [–] 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Is it something like a bothersome/mischievous person?

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  • [–] [S] -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Ah i see. If I'm gonna guess:

    Rap -> sounds like an older version of the word wrap. So to wrap something or something that's intertwined.

    Scallion -> sounds like it relates to a specific group of people or maybe even a certain type of animal. Maybe a snake like animal (thinking scales).

    Putting that together, it's a snake or snake like animal that wraps around you or others and it's a bother to remove.

    Am close at all or I'm playing tennis when the game is super Mario?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    A dastardly sort of fellow

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Someone who likes rapping but also ska and has a fursona of a lion.

    Obviously.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    Rap Scallion is a cook in Monkey Island.

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  • It's a kind of onion some rappers like to spin in their music videos. The tradition has evolved from spinning leek, common in other music genres.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

    Deleted... oh no... I'm sorry I clearly can't follow instructions and the word nerd in me took over I AM SO SORRY!!

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

    Dude- The first sentence in the title man…..

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I'm sorry I clearly can't follow instructions and the word nerd in me took over I AM SO SORRY!!

    I have the entire Wiktionary on my phone, offline, I use it constantly and had never even considered looking this word up. So, I mean, I didn't Google it, technically I didn't even use the internet or anything, but I definitely cheated (albeit accidentally)

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago (2 children)

    It’s all good. No points were lost. 😂

    And wait, you can put offline wiktionary on your phone?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    Yeah, it's an app called Aard 2 (pretty sure I grabbed it from Fdroid) and it can import database dumps from wiki-style sites, it's made me a big hit at parties as you can imagine. Now you can be, too!

    Dictionary blobs you can choose from: https://github.com/itkach/slob/wiki/Dictionaries

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago