Rope is typically long, strong and fibrous.
So how did us Brits come to use "ropey" to describe something of poor quality?
British informal of poor quality:
a portrait by a pretty ropey artist
While we're on the subject, why do we also say we "feel ropey" when we're not too well or hungover?
Best Answer
In ‘Chambers Slang Dictionary’, Jonathon Green suggests a derivation from ‘roup’, a form of catarrh and originally a disease of poultry. From the late 18th century it was used, according to Green, to describe an object or person that was ‘second-rate, inadequate, run-down, etc’ and came in the 1940s and 1950s to be applied to people who were unpopular. Any supposed connection with cords may thus open up a false trail.