Rowdy Began as an American Frontier Word
Rowdy means noisy and disorderly. The word first described lawless backwoodsmen in early nineteenth-century America.
Rowdy means noisy and disorderly, and as a noun a rough troublemaker. It is American in origin, recorded from around 1808 for a lawless frontier backwoodsman, and probably built on *row*, a noisy quarrel, which rhymes with *cow* rather than with *low*. That *row* is itself of unknown origin, appearing in the 1700s as university slang. English has an unusually rich set of words for disorder, and rowdy sits between merely loud and genuinely violent.
- Noisy and disorderly. *A rowdy crowd.*
- A troublemaker. *Rowdies in the street.*
- Row — a noisy quarrel. *A terrible row.*
- Rowdiness — the behaviour. *Rowdiness.*
- American — from about 1808. *Frontier slang.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | rowdy | Rowdy. |
| Comparative | rowdier | Rowdier. |
| Noun | rowdy | A rowdy. |
| Noun | rowdiness | Rowdiness. |
| Adverb | rowdily | Rowdily. |
- The pub got rowdy after the match.Behaviour.
- There was a row next door.Related word.
- The word began on the frontier.Origin.
Degrees of disorder
- Boisterous — loud and energetic, usually harmless
- Rowdy — noisy and disorderly, edging toward trouble
- Unruly — resisting control
- Riotous — genuinely out of control
- Raucous — describes the noise rather than the behaviour
American English, from about 1808, probably from *row*, a noisy disturbance, itself of unknown origin.
Is rowdy related to row meaning a line?
No. It relates to row meaning a noisy quarrel, which rhymes with cow, not to row meaning a line or to row a boat.
Where does rowdy come from?
American frontier usage from around 1808, first describing lawless backwoodsmen.