rummage: [16] Rummage is etymologically ‘roomage’. It originally denoted the ‘stowage of cargo in a ship’s hold’. It came from Anglo- Norman *rumage, a reduced form of Old French arrumage. This was derived from the verb arrumer ‘stow in a hold’, which itself was based on run ‘ship’s hold’. And this in turn was borrowed from Middle Dutch ruim ‘space’, a relative of English room. The verb rummage, derived from the noun, was also used for ‘search a ship’s hold’, which is where the modern notion of ‘rummaging around’ comes from. => room
rummage (v.)
1540s, "arrange (cargo) in a ship," from rummage (n.), 1520s, "act of arranging cargo in a ship," a shortening of Middle French arrumage "arrangement of cargo," from arrumer "to stow goods in the hold of a ship," from a- "to" + rumer, probably from Germanic (compare Old Norse rum "compartment in a ship," Old High German rum "space," Old English rum; see room (n.)). Or else from English room (n.) + -age.
Meaning "to search closely (the hold of a ship), especially by moving things about" first recorded 1610s. Related: Rummaged; rummaging. Rummage sale (1803) originally was a sale at docks of unclaimed goods.
实用例句
1. They rummage through piles of second-hand clothes for something that fits.
他们在一堆堆的二手衣服里翻找着合身的衣服。
来自柯林斯例句
2. A brief rummage will provide several pairs of gloves.
稍微翻翻，就能找到几双手套。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Marianne went to rummage in the refrigerator.
玛丽安娜在冰箱里翻了翻。
来自柯林斯例句
4. He had a good rummage inside the sofa.
他把沙发内部彻底搜寻了一翻.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. Mullins began to rummage among the chaotic mess of papers on his desk.
