rad

Forms

rād f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular rāde, nominative plural rāda)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *raidu, from Proto-Germanic *raidō (“ride, journey”), an o-grade noun formed to the verb *rīdaną (“to ride”), the source of rīdan.^[1][2] The noun is found in Old Norse reið (“riding, raid, vehicle”) and Old High German reita (“wagon”), and in the compounds Old Frisian rāfrēd (“ride on a stolen horse”) and Old Saxon branderēda (“andiron”).^[2][3] Orel and Holthausen compare Gaulish rēda (“wagon”) and Old Irish ríad (“driving, riding”).^[2][4] Köbler places the root under Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride, move”).^[3]

Proto-Germanic /ai/ appears here as ⟨ā⟩, one of the earliest changes that set Old English apart from the other West Germanic dialects.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is the Parker manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written from the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries.^[6] Its annal for 871 counts the battles fought against the Danish army south of the Thames, besides those in which cyninges þegnas oft rade onridon þe mon na ne rimde “the king's thegns often rode on raids that no one counted”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is riding, a ride or journey on horseback or in a carriage: the Old English Bede says that Bishop Chad preferred to preach walking rather than on his horsa rade, for the Latin “equitando”.^[8] It is used of a voyage by ship in Elene, of a mounted expedition, and in a hostile sense of a raid, as in the Chronicle for 871.^[8][9] In the laws on rade is a riding out to enforce a judgement or to follow a trail.^[10] As “way, road” it is found only in compounds, mostly poetic names for the sea such as hranrād (“whale-road”) and swanrād (“swan-road”).^[8] It is also the name of the rune ᚱ.^[8][9]

Its descendant Middle English rode kept the senses of riding, a mounted expedition and a raid.^[11] Etymonline dates the sense of a way between two places, the meaning of English road, from the 1590s.^[12] The Scots descendant raid gave the English word raid.^[1]

Timeline

• s. ix/x – oft rade onridon “often rode on raids” in the Parker Chronicle's annal for 871.^[6][7]
• s. x med. – mid ðære rade “by riding” in the Old English Boethius.^[13][7]
• s. x med. – mid radum “with rides”, as exercise for an old man's eyes, in Bald's Leechbook.^[14][7]
• s. x² – to rade of a voyage by sea in Elene in the Vercelli Book.^[15][7]
• s. x² – rynestrong on rade “strong in running on the ride” in Riddle 19 in the Exeter Book.^[16][7]
• s. xi in. – hu him on rade getimode “what had befallen him on the ride” in Ælfric's Lives of Saints.^[17][7]
• c. 1225 – Middle English rode “riding, a ride”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. riding; a ride, a journey on horseback or in a carriage.^[8][9][3]
2. a voyage by ship.^[8][9]
3. a mounted expedition; a raid;^[8][10] (law) a riding out to enforce a judgement.^[8][10]
4. (poetic, in compounds) a road, way.^[8]
5. the name of the rune ᚱ.^[8][9]

Word family

• hranrād
• swanrād
• seglrād
• brimrād
• midrād
• onrād

Descendants

• Middle English rode (→ English road; Scots raid)^[1]

Related words

• rīdan

Usage notes

Bosworth and Toller set up a separate rād “furniture, harness” for the stanza of the Rune Poem on ᚱ, and Sweet marks that sense as doubtful.^[8][9] The noun and adjective ġerād “reckoning; wise, skilful” are another word.^[18][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 295
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. rād
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 252
5. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 175
6. ^ a b c Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
7. ^ a b c d e f g Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 781
9. ^ a b c d e f Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 160
10. ^ a b c Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 180
11. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
14. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
15. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 704
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 282
18. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 276