Which is it: rabble rouser or rebel rouser? It’s rabble rouser, rabble meaning “a confused collection of things” or “a motley crowd.” Rubble rouser is an incorrect variant listed in the Eggcorn Database. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Rabble Rouser vs. Rebel Rouser”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Michelle Jannon, and I’m calling from Indianapolis.
Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
What’s going on?
Well, my daughter was home for the holiday. She lives in San Francisco, and we were driving in the car and just chatting.
And I brought up a mutual friend of ours, and I said, you know, she’s pretty outspoken and direct.
She’s kind of a rabble rouser.
And my daughter said, wait, wait, what? Rabble rouser? Don’t you mean rebel rouser?
And I said, no, I think it’s rabble rouser.
But then she said, we got to call A Way with Words and get to sort it out.
So that’s why I’m calling today.
That’s great.
So just to be clear here, you’re saying R-A-B-B-L-E, rouser, and she’s saying R-E-B-E-L, rouser.
That’s right.
Rabble versus rebel.
And what did you mean by that?
Well, you know, someone who’s blunt and direct, but even more than that, you know, this woman’s not afraid to kind of mix it up and challenge the status quo and try and bring people over to her side or her way of thinking.
Right.
And so your daughter thinks it’s rebel.
Rebel rouser.
Well, she thought it would make sense because rebels kind of do the same thing, right?
They often go against the status quo and maybe try and change minds or cause problems.
That was her thinking.
Okay.
All right.
Well, you’re right, and she’s not right.
Listen to her mama.
Well, we kind of both agreed that probably rabble was right.
But rabble had such a good feel to it that we thought it was worth asking about.
Yeah, yeah. It’s kind of clever.
I mean, we’ve had the word rabble in English for centuries now.
And originally it meant just a confused collection of things.
You know, it could be like a swarm of insects or a pack of animals or just a confused jumble of things.
And rabble also came to mean a bunch of people, like a crowd.
A motley bunch.
Yeah, yeah.
And so if you’re rousing that bunch, that rabble, then you’re inciting them to action.
You’re rousing them to wake them up from their stupor, sheeple.
Right?
Yeah, exactly.
The rouse part is really interesting to me because originally it was a term in falconry.
Oh, interesting.
Yeah.
Oh, really?
There’s a lot of those terms in English that come from falconry, and rousing originally referred to hawks shaking their feathers, you know, just kind of getting them all in order before they take off or something.
Yeah.
Isn’t that cool?
Mm—
Yeah.
Your daughter.
That’s why I love your show.
Thank you.
I learn things every time I listen.
Michelle, your daughter is not alone in thinking that it’s a rubble rouser, by the way.
Is that right?
Okay.
Yeah, I found it in the Eggcorn database.
This is a list of terms where people have kind of misunderstood one word and replaced it with another one that kind of makes sense.
And other people also have not only said rebel rouser, but they’ve said rebel raiser, R-A-I-S-E-R.
Like they are raising rebels.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
So she’s not alone.
It’s not that common, but it’s common enough that it’s been recorded by linguists.
Right, because it makes sense.
Right.
It sort of does make sense.
It makes some sense, yeah.
Yeah.
But the rebel wouldn’t have to be rebels.
No.
You know, like a demagogue.
They could be loyalists.
Right.
A demagogue could rouse the rabble.
The rabble is just the people not in power, right?
The ones out in the street waving the placards and shouting the chants.
Well, thank you for sorting that out for us.
Well, we’re happy to do it.
Thank you for calling, Michelle.
Really appreciate it.
Sure thing.
Thanks a lot.
Have a great day.
Okay.
Bye-bye.
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