Rugged

How to spell rugged

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rugged

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rugged mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a rough, uneven surface or, of a person or thing, strong and able to withstand hard use.

Rugged in a sentence

• The rugged coastline made the hike slow and tiring.

• He bought a rugged laptop designed to survive drops and dust.

Where does rugged come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is one of those English words whose family tree runs north into Scandinavia. It first appears in Middle English in the 1300s meaning 'rough, shaggy, or hairy', and it is most likely linked to an Old Norse root such as 'rogg', a shaggy tuft or strand of hair, the same source that gives us the everyday word 'rag'. From describing something hairy and bristly, the sense broadened to cover any surface that is uneven, broken, or rough to the touch, and from there to rocky landscapes and weathered faces. By the time the word settled into modern English it had also picked up the admiring sense of 'tough and durable', as in a person or a vehicle built to survive hard use. The doubled g is the spelling trap: the short 'u' vowel demands two g's before the ending, and unusually the '-ed' here is sounded as a full second syllable, RUG-id, rather than the silent ending of words like 'hugged'.

How the word is built

• rug (rough, shaggy)
• -ged (adjectival ending, with doubled g after the short vowel)