rafter

rafter¹ sloping roof beam

Etymology

The roof beam is inherited from Middle English rafter, also refter and raftre,^[2][3] inherited from Old English ræfter,^[4][5][6][2] recorded early in the plural as West Saxon ræftras and Mercian reftras.^[7][3] It is cognate with Old Saxon rehter,^[8][9][10] Middle Low German rafter, also rachter,^[4][3][11] and Middle Dutch rachter, also rafter,^[12] and related to Old Norse raptr (“log, rafter”),^[7][11][4] the source of raft,^[9][8] to ræfr (“roof”)^[3][9] and to Old High German rāvo (“beam”).^[9][10] Orel reconstructs Proto-Germanic *raftraz,^[13] and Etymonline, after Watkins, derives the Germanic form from Proto-Indo-European *rep- (“stake, beam”).^[7][3] The OED analyses the word as a Germanic base with a suffix forming nouns of instrument, as in bladder, ladder and rudder, and takes some English forms as probably from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German variants with medial ch.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A beam or pole: about 700 in the Mercian plural reftras, according to Barnhart,^[3] and in the Épinal Glossary, according to the OED.^[12] The sense of a sloping roof beam is also Old English, in the translation of Bede.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle English the word could mean any long beam, plank or pole.^[2][12] In Laȝamon's Brut the Britons drive long ræftres into the Thames.^[2] The OED follows this general sense up to 1831,^[12] and the Shorter Oxford has it as "any large beam" to the late 17th century.^[8] The roof sense had a figurative use from before 1225,^[12] and the Middle English Dictionary records it for the beam in one's eye of Matthew 7:3.^[2] Chaucer has it once.^[14] Johnson (1755) reported Junius's opinion that it was a corruption of roof tree.^[15] The verb, to provide with rafters, followed in 1538, in Elyot's dictionary.^[12] From 1724 it also meant ploughing land into narrow ridges,^[12] a term that lasted in the dialects of Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Wiltshire.^[16] In North America from 1792 it was used of ice piling up.^[12][8] The rafter or rafter bird is the spotted flycatcher, named for the place where it nests.^[12][4]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Mercian plural reftras, a beam or pole.^[3]
• before 899 – West Saxon plural ræftras.^[3]
• before 1225 – figurative use of the roof beam.^[12]
• 1538 – verb, to provide with rafters.^[12]
• 1724 – verb, to plough land into narrow ridges (obsolete by 1903).^[12]
• 1792 – verb, in North America, of ice: to pile up.^[12]
• 1802 – the spotted flycatcher, in British regional use (obsolete by 1885).^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. One of the sloping beams that form the framework of a roof: Swallows nested among the old rafters of the barn.^[10][4][12]
2. (regional, obsolete, 1802–85) The spotted flycatcher.^[12][4]
3. (obsolete) Any long beam, plank or pole.^[12][8][2]

Verb

1. To furnish a building with rafters.^[4][12][8]
2. Of ice, in North America: to override and underrun in layers under pressure.^[4][8][12]
3. (dialect, obsolete, 1724–1903) To plough land so as to turn each furrow onto an unploughed strip, leaving ridges.^[4][12][16]

Word family

• raftered
• raftering
• rafterless
• jack rafter
• valley rafter
• hip rafter

rafter² person who rafts

Etymology tree of rafter²

inherited borrowed derived

English raft

English rafter

Etymology

The person who rafts is formed from English raft + -er,^[4][12][5] from either the noun or the verb, according to the OED.^[12][8] Etymonline takes it from the verb alone.^[7] The noun is from Old Norse raptr (“rafter, log”).^[9][8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person employed in rafting timber: 1741, in R. Pilgrim, printed in Voyages to Hudson Bay.^[12][4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1809,^[7] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 19th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first rafters were workers in the timber trade.^[12][4] Merriam-Webster describes them walking on floating logs to bind them into rafts for towing,^[4] and Mayhew in 1851 lists "rafters or raftsmen" among the labourers of the London timber trade.^[16] With rafting as a pastime the word came to mean anyone who travels on a raft: the OED has this from 1954,^[12] and Etymonline has the recreational sense by 1978.^[7]

Timeline

• 1741 – a person employed in rafting timber.^[12][4]
• 1954 – a person who travels on a raft, especially for sport.^[12] Etymonline dates the recreational sense to 1978.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who travels on a raft, especially for sport: The rafters pulled in below the rapids.^[17][12][18]
2. A worker who binds logs into rafts to be floated or towed to a mill.^[4][17][12]