A long-handled garden tool with teeth for gathering leaves, or a dissolute person living an immoral lifestyle.
Tool meaning from Old English 'raca', related to Old Norse 'reka' (to drive). The 'dissolute person' meaning comes from 'rakehell', originally meaning someone so debauched they would rake through hell.
The dramatic semantic split between garden tool and scoundrel creates wonderful wordplay opportunities in literature. The transformation from 'rakehell' to simply 'rake' shows how language efficiently drops syllables while keeping the essential meaning intact.
Rake (dissolute man) and its female equivalent 'slut' carry radically different moral weight—male sexuality framed as vice/personality, female as moral corruption. The asymmetry encodes gendered sexual double standards.
Avoid gendered double standards when discussing relationship/sexual history. Use neutral descriptors or avoid character judgment entirely.
["libertine","hedonist","unfaithful partner"]
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