race

English has two main words spelled race: the contest of speed, from Old Norse, and the group of people of common descent, from French and Italian.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /reɪs/^[4]

race¹ contest of speed

Etymology

The contest is inherited from Middle English ras (“a rush, an onslaught; running”),^[5][2][6] borrowed from Old Norse rás (“a running, a rush of water”),^[5][2][1] cognate with Old English rǣs (“a running, rush, attack”).^[5][3][6] Etymonline allows that it may be a survival of the Old English word, with its form influenced by the Norse noun.^[5] The Germanic words are from Proto-Germanic *res-, which Watkins derives from a variant of Proto-Indo-European *ers- (“to be in motion”), the root of err.^[5][1] Hoad calls the Norse word of uncertain origin.^[7] The verb, Middle English rasen “to rush”, is from a Scandinavian source akin to the noun.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charge in battle, an onslaught: probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin.^[2] The act of running is from about 1325.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

It was originally a northern word and became general in English about 1550.^[5][7] It was used broadly of any course to be run: the course of life from about 1300, and the track of a heavenly body from the 1580s.^[5] To rue one's race, “to repent the course one has taken”, is from about 1440.^[8][5] A strong current of water is from about 1300,^[5] and a channel such as a mill-race from the 1560s.^[5][7] A contest of speed is from the 1510s,^[5][7] and an election contest by 1825.^[5] The verb “to compete in a race” is from 1680,^[8] “to run against in a race” from 1809, and of an engine, “to run with uncontrolled speed”, from 1862.^[5] A race against time is a situation in which one tries to finish before a deadline.^[9]

Timeline

• before 1300 – an onslaught.^[2]
• c. 1300 – a swift current.^[5]
• c. 1325 – running.^[8]
• 1510s – a contest of speed.^[5]
• c. 1550 – general in English.^[5]
• 1560s – a mill channel.^[5]
• 1680 – verb, to run a race.^[8]
• 1825 – an election contest.^[5]
• 1862 – of an engine.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A competition of speed, as in running, riding or sailing.
2. A contest for a position or prize: the presidential race.
3. A strong current of water, or a channel for one: a mill race.
4. (archaic) The course of life.

Verb

1. To take part in a race; to compete in speed.
2. To move or go very fast.
3. Of an engine, to run too fast.

Word family

• racer
• racing
• racecourse
• racetrack
• racehorse
• mill race
• rat race

race² people of common descent

Etymology

The group of people is borrowed from Middle French race (“generation, family”),^[5][2][3] from Italian razza (“race, breed, lineage”),^[5][1][6] of unknown origin, like Spanish raza and Portuguese raça.^[5][10] Etymologists see no connection with Latin rādīx (“root”), though it may have influenced the sense “tribe, nation”,^[5] and Klein suggests a source in Arabic raʾs “head, beginning, origin”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A class of wine with a characteristic flavour, and a group of people regarded as a set, as in a new race of poets: 1520.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

A generation is from the 1540s^[5] or about 1549,^[2] and a group of people of common descent from 1570.^[2][8] A breed or stock of animals is from 1580.^[8] The sense passed through “tribe, nation or people of common stock”, about 1600,^[8] to “one of the great divisions of mankind with physical features in common” by 1774,^[5][8] though, as the OED points out, anthropologists never agreed on a classification.^[5] In the 19th century it was also used of a group seen as a distinct ethnic stock, such as the Germans or Greeks, from 1842.^[5][8]

Timeline

• 1520 – a class of wine; a set of people.^[2]
• 1540s – a generation.^[5]
• 1570 – people of common descent.^[2][8]
• 1580 – a breed of animals.^[8]
• c. 1600 – a tribe or nation.^[8]
• 1774 – a great division of mankind.^[8][5]
• 1842 – an ethnic stock.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A group of people regarded as distinct on the basis of shared physical characteristics passed on by descent.
2. A group of people united by common history, nationality or ancestry.
3. A breed or variety of animals or plants; a subspecies.
4. The human race: the human race.

Word family

• racial
• racism
• racist
• interracial
• multiracial

Related words

• err
• rash
• radix
• racy

Usage notes

A race of ginger, a ginger root, used by Shakespeare in The Winter's Tale, is from Old French rais, from Latin rādīx “root”.^[11][6][8] In English dialects race was also the heart, liver and lungs of a calf.^[12][8] A white mark down the face of a horse is a race, of unknown origin.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)