Most derogatory words tend to form within a single language and do not have an international origin. However, the vernacular "rogue" is a word that has a positive meaning in one language, but a negative meaning in another. Shushera has its roots in Napoleonic France.
Etymology of the word "riff-raff"
Shushera is a symbiosis of transcription and transliteration when translating from French into Russian (translation methods into Russian).
It is known from history that in 1812, during the Patriotic War with Napoleon Bonaparte, Russian soldiers, when retreating from Moscow, decided to burn it. The French army had no choice but to leave Moscow after the Russian troops. Hungry and cold, they were immediately taken prisoner by Russian soldiers.
Uneducated peasants, seeing a French prisoner, did not miss the chance to mock him. The peasants jokingly asked the French prisoners where they were heading. And those, not knowing the Russian language well, answeredin French something like: "chez cherier", which in French is pronounced "che cherie" and means "home to the sweetheart".
The peasants did not know French, and therefore they jokingly called them "riff-raff", reproducing the sound of the word and its alphabetic composition in Russian.
So the Russian people began to call all the French prisoners, and then other crooks, ragamuffins and objectionable dregs of society.
Meaning of the word "riff-raff"
The word "riff-raff" has two spellings: "ruff-ruff" and "ruff-ruff". All explanatory dictionaries give a similar definition to this word.
So, a riffraff is a talker, an insignificant, cheesy person. In addition, every rabble, riffraff was called a riff-raff.
This word may refer to thieves' jargon and mean a prisoner stealing from inmates.
Writers, using contemptuous vernacular in their stories, reduce the word to a single letter "riff-raff" ("Sh." or "sh".).
