also Scottish and dialect form ROW-DE-DOW
ETYMOLOGY
– originally a variant of row dow dow ( a series of sounds as produced by beating a drum)
– later possibly influenced by rowdy dowdy (characterized by noisy roughness)
EXAMPLE
“…There has been a terrible rowdydow in the operatic green-room…”
From: Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil
By Nathaniel Parker Willis, 1845
Lexicophilia 