foray

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English forraien,^[2][3] probably a back-formation from Middle English forreour (“forager, raider”),^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} a noun first recorded before 1338, in Robert Mannyng's chronicle.^[6] The Middle English noun is from Old French forrier (“forager”),^{[6][10][8][2]} from forrer (“to forage”),^[6][10][11] from fuerre (“fodder, straw”),^[8][11][12] the source of forage;^[10][6] the French word goes back to a Romance form related to fodder,^[7][4] and ultimately to Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“fodder”).^[1][13] The Anglo-Norman forier, a forager or quartermaster, is recorded from 1155.^[14] The noun foray is probably from the verb.^{[4][5][10][6][7]} The OED calls the exact formation and the relation of noun and verb obscure: its alternative is that the noun came straight from the French verb and gave rise to the verb.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged derives the verb directly from forrer.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To scour or ravage a country in search of forage or booty: about 1400, in the poem Cleanness;^[4] the noun, a predatory raid, is recorded about the same time.^[4] Barnhart dates both to 1375, in John Barbour's Bruce, a Scottish poem,^[6] which the OED quotes from a manuscript of 1487.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary defines the verb as gathering provisions for an army in hostile territory, going on a foraging or plundering expedition.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term for living off an enemy's land: the related forreour was one who gathered provisions for an army in hostile country.^[2] In early use it was mainly Scottish.^[7][10][6] In the 15th and 16th centuries the noun could also mean the booty taken in a raid and the advance guard of an army, senses that died out around 1600.^[4][5] The word then fell out of use and was revived in the 19th century by Walter Scott;^[6][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged quotes him for the transitive verb, now archaic.^[11] In modern use the noun has widened from a raid to any venturesome expedition, and to a brief attempt at something outside one's usual field.^[5][11][15]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – verb, to ravage a country in search of booty; to plunder.^[4]
• c. 1400 – noun, a hostile or predatory incursion, a raid.^[4]
• c. 1425 – booty taken in a raid (obsolete by 1598).^[4]
• c. 1425 – the advance guard of an army (obsolete by 1600).^[4]
• 1487 – intransitive verb, to make a raid, to forage.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sudden raid or incursion into enemy territory, especially to seize goods: The garrison made a night foray across the river.^[15][11][4]
2. A brief attempt or venture, especially in a field outside one's usual one: the chef's first foray into publishing.^[15][11][5]
3. (obsolete, c. 1425–1598) Booty taken in a raid.^[4][11]
4. (obsolete, c. 1425–1600) The advance guard of an army.^[4][5]

Verb

1. To make a raid or brief incursion: Scouts forayed into the valley at dawn.^[11][15][4]
2. (archaic) To pillage or ravage a place in search of plunder.^[11][5][4]

Word family

• forayer

Related words

• forage
• fodder

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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)
3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins