Posted by giveawayboy on December 06, 2002 at 11:26:36:
In Reply to: is rummage sale is still on? posted by marcos on December 05, 2002 at 16:40:31:
Rummage dates back to the early 16th century. The word was adopted from French arrumage (arrimage today), which derives from the French verb arrumer. Spanish and Portuguese had the same or similar versions of these words, which mean "to stow". No one seems to know where the Romance languages acquired the word. It was first used in English with a nautical sense, meaning "the arranging of casks, etc., in the hold of a vessel". Soon it came to mean "bustle, commotion, turmoil" (as apparently these were associated with the holds of vessels, perhaps as they were being loaded and unloaded), and then, by the mid-18th century, it referred to "an overhauling search". Today the verb still has that sense, if refined a bit to "dig through in search of". A rummage sale was originally a clearance sale of unclaimed goods at the docks, or of odds and ends in a warehouse (1858). Now, off to rummage through the pantry in search of something for dinner!
this information taken from: http://www.takeourword.com/TOW166/page2.html