Entry · catalog no. 3012
ruff
/ /rʌf/ /RUF
noun · Harlem, NYC · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
The twenty-five-cent coin, or that sum of money. Interchangeable with meter in the same vocabulary, and paired in use with mouse, the pocket the coin went into.
“Drop a ruff in the nicklette and let''s hear something.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem Black vernacular, in print by October 1940 in Dan Burley's Amsterdam News column — where it appears in the form double-ruff — and reaching Black Los Angeles by 1945, where Chester Himes put it in a character's mouth. The etymology is unknown and should not be guessed at; the shift from double-ruff in 1940 to plain ruff by 1944 is unexplained.
1940
Dan Burley records double-ruff for a quarter in the New York Amsterdam News, October 19
1944
Entered in Calloway''s Hepster''s Dictionary as a quarter, twenty-five cents
1945
Chester Himes puts it in dialogue in If He Hollers Let Him Go
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, NYC · 1940s
Spoken by
Harlem speakers; carried west to Black Los Angeles by the mid-1940s
$RUFFThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading86 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
32/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1940
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
New York Amsterdam News, Dan Burley column, p. 20 — newspaper record · October 19, 1940
archive-desk
■
If He Hollers Let Him Go, Chester Himes — Doubleday, Doran · 1945
archive-desk
■
+ Cite a sourceThe New Cab Calloway''s Hepsters Dictionary: Language of Jive, Cab Calloway — sixth edition · 1944
archive-desk
See also