ragamuffin

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 7, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>ragamuffin</strong> &#149; \RAG-uh-muf-in\&nbsp; &#149; <em>noun</em><br /> <p><strong>:</strong> a ragged often disreputable person; <em>especially</em> <strong>:</strong> a poorly clothed often dirty child</p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"[Bill Eddins] saw the photograph on sale years ago and ever after has recited the story of its purchase to visitors of his office. 'It's not me in the picture. We were too poor to afford a camera,' the story goes. 'But if we had had enough money to afford photography, that's what I would have looked like.' The <em>ragamuffin</em>, 5 or 6 years old, stared straight out of the frame at the viewer with a look that seemed to say, 'It's sure hot, mister, ain't it.'" — <a href="https://www.pnj.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/16/bill-eddins-retiring-state-attorney-florida-first-judicial-circuit/3866209001/">Colin Warren-Hicks, <em>The Pensacola (Florida) News Journal</em>, 16 Dec. 2020</a></p> <p>"The Amarilla Club was full of festive <em>ragamuffins</em>. Their frowsy heads protruded from every window, and from within came drunken shouts, the thumping of feet, and the twanging of harps." — <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Nostromo/6m9aAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22Their+frowsy+heads+protruded+from+every+window,+and+from+within+came+drunken+shouts%22&amp;pg=PA407&amp;printsec=frontcover">Joseph Conrad, <em>Nostromo</em>, 1904</a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>If you've guessed that <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rag">rag</a></em> or <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ragged">ragged</a></em> is related to <em>ragamuffin</em>, you may be correct, but the origins of the word are somewhat murky. In Middle English, <em>ragamuffin</em> functioned both as a surnam