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race

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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
  • 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)