Most scornful words are usually formed within the same language and are not of international origin. However, the vernacular “shusher” is a word that has a positive meaning in one language, but negative in another. "Sushera" has its roots in Napoleonic France.
Etymology of the word "riffraff"
Shushera is a symbiosis of transcription and transliteration when translated from French into Russian (methods of translation into Russian).
It is known from history that in 1812, during the Patriotic War with Napoleon Bonaparte, Russian soldiers decided to burn it when they retreated from Moscow. The French army had no choice but to leave Moscow after the Russian troops. Hungry and frozen, they were immediately captured by Russian soldiers.
Uneducated peasants, seeing a French captive, did not miss a chance to mock him. The peasants jokingly asked the captured French where they were going. And those who did not know the Russian language, answered in French something like: "chez cherier", which in French is pronounced "she sheri" and means "home, sweetheart."
The peasants did not know the French language, and therefore they jokingly nicknamed them "Shushera", reproducing the sound of the word and its letter composition in Russian.
So the Russian people began to call all captured Frenchmen, and then other crooks, ragged people and objectionable dregs of society.
Meaning of the word “riffraff”
The word "Shushera" has a double spelling: "Shushera" and "Shushara". All explanatory dictionaries give a similar definition to a given word.
So, a shushera is a talker, an insignificant, crappy person. In addition, every rabble, punks, was called a riffraff.
This word can refer to thieves' jargon and mean a prisoner stealing from cellmates.
Writers, using contemptuous vernacular in their stories, shorten the word to one letter "Shushera" ("Sh." Or "sh.").