Ruffage

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The coarse, fibrous remnants of plant matter are recognized as non-nutritive elements that improve digestion and provide bulk in the diet
2. The tough, fibrous parts of plants that add bulk to food and aid in digestion
3. Plant material high in fiber that helps promote healthy digestion and fullness

Etymology: "Ruffage" is simply an older spelling of "roughage," so the word's history is the history of "rough" plus a suffix. The base is "rough," meaning not smooth or crude, unrefined. The ending "-age" is a suffix that forms nouns meaning a collection or quantity of something, as in "baggage" or "acreage," so "roughage" is essentially a collection of rough material. The sense of the word has narrowed over time. Its original idea is coarse, bulky stuff in general, and it came to mean the indigestible fibrous matter in plant food that gives digestion something to work with. The same thinking shows up in its farm usage: cattle fodder such as corn silage is described as roughage, while grain and concentrated feeds are not.

Synonyms: fiber, bulk, roughage