Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I coached a boys cross country running team. During practice, these runners donned such a motley assortment of torn T-shirts, ratty sweat pants and frayed shorts that I sometimes called them "ragamuffins." Mischievous scamps that they were, they gleefully embraced this moniker as their new team nickname.

Little did I know that I had named them after a medieval devil.

"Ragamuffin," which today refers to an unruly child in tattered clothes or any scruffy person, derives from Ragamoffyn, a character in William Langland's allegorical poem "Piers Plowman," written in 1393. In "Piers Plowman," Ragamoffyn is much more sinister than an ill-clad rascal; in fact, he's Satan. (His name may derive from the belief that the devil sometimes dressed in rags; think of a shabby witch.)

"Piers Plowman" was written in Middle English, and one of its references to "Ragamoffyn" reads, "Ac rys vp ragamoffyn." Eerily, this resembles a text message once sent by Barack Obama to Joe Biden during a cabinet meeting. Translation: "After Cabinet meeting, rye and soda, veep. Casual attire."

By the 1500s, "ragamoffyn" had assumed a new spelling — "ragamuffin" — and a much less diabolical meaning: "a ragged, disreputable man or boy." Charles Dickens used this term in his novel "Barnaby Rudge": "A set of ragamuffins comes shouting after us, 'Gordon for ever!'" a slogan that was apparently the 19th-century version of "Occupy Wall Street!"

Linguists call this process by which a word "improves" in meaning "melioration," from the Latin "melior," meaning "better."

Another R-word describing a rowdy child, "rapscallion," also experienced melioration. Back in the 1600s, "rapscallion" and its related form "rascallion" denoted a "low, mean wretch." But over the years, the meaning of "rapscallion" softened to today's milder denotation: "a mischievous scamp."

"Rapscallion" and "rascallion" are derivations of "rascal," which first appeared in English during the 1300s. "Rascal" came from the Old French "rascaille," meaning "an outcast." Originally denoting a member of the lower orders, "rascal" then came to mean "an unprincipled, dishonest man."

"Rascal" also underwent melioration, and by the 1600s, had assumed the "mischievous imp" denotation it has today.

Come to think of it, all three of these R-words are linguistic rascals who slyly conceal their darker, original meanings.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254