Etymology: Originally (with loss of the initial unstressed syllable) < Middle French arrumage arranging or rearranging of cargo in the hold of a ship (French arrimage , †arrumage ) < arrumer (French arrimer , †arrumer ) < Middle Dutch rūmen , ruymen rime v.² + French -age -age suffix. Compare post-classical Latin roumagium , rumagium (from late 13th cent. in British sources), which may imply earlier currency of the French noun; compare also Portuguese arrumação (1623; 1553 as †rumação ). In sense 2 probably originally < rummish v. (with voicing of the final fricative), but associated with sense 1 early on; compare Scots (north-east) reemish, remish, reemage to search thoroughly, to poke around and stir things up in searching (second half of the 19th cent.). In later use probably partly < rummage v.Slightly earlier currency is probably implied by rummaging n. With Middle French, French arrimer , †arrumer compare Spanish arrumar (1402), Portuguese arrimar , arrumar (both 15th cent.), which are both ultimately < Dutch, perhaps via French. N.E.D. (1910) included a sense with the definition ‘place of stowage or storage; storage capacity’. The quotations illustrating this sense have been reinterpreted and moved to roomage n. Compare the β. forms, which arose from association with room n.¹ and room v.¹

Etymology: < rummage n. (compare forms, and see discussion, at that entry). Compare Middle French arumaigier in uncertain sense, perhaps ‘to arrange, set in order’ (c1420 in an apparently isolated attestation; < arrumage rummage n.). Compare rummager n. and earlier rummaging n.