rape

Rape, sexual assault, and rape, the plant grown for oil and fodder, are different words.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /reɪp/^[4]

rape¹ sexual assault

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rape, rapen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman rap, rape and directly from Latin rapere (“to seize, carry off by force”),^[1][2] the source also of rapid, rapt, rapacious and rapture.^[5][2] In Old French the verb changed to ravir, the source of ravish.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Booty or prey: the early 14th century in Etymonline, before 1325 in Barnhart, in Cursor Mundi;^[1][2] the forceful seizure of property, plundering, the mid-14th century.^[1][2] The verb meant to seize prey or take by force in the late 14th century (1387 in Barnhart).^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

The carrying off of a woman by force is from about 1400,^[6][2] and sexual violation of a woman from 1481 in the OED, the early 15th century in Etymonline;^[6][1] since abduction was often accompanied by assault, early uses are not always clear.^[2] The older senses of seizing became obsolete,^[1] though the verb was revived for plundering a place in 1721.^[1][2] In Middle English the past participle could mean “carried off to heaven”, and that use blended with rapt.^[1][7] Modern law extends the word to sexual assault on any person.^[6][7] Rapist is from 1883, in American English.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – booty, prey.^[2]
• mid-14th century – seizure, robbery.^[1]
• 1387 – verb, to seize.^[2]
• c. 1400 – abduction.^[6]
• 1481 – sexual violation.^[6]
• 1721 – verb, to plunder a place.^[1]
• 1883 – rapist.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The crime of forcing another person to have sex.
2. The destruction or spoiling of a place: the rape of the countryside.
3. (archaic) The act of carrying someone off by force.

Verb

1. To force someone to have sex.
2. (archaic) To plunder or seize by force.

rape² plant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rape, borrowed from Old French rape and directly from Latin rāpa, rāpum (“turnip”).^[1][2][3] The Latin word is related to Greek rháphys “turnip”, Old Church Slavonic rěpa and German Rübe,^[1][2][8] perhaps all borrowed from a non-Indo-European word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The turnip, and the yellow-flowered plant Brassica napus grown for fodder and oil: 1398 in the OED and Barnhart.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

According to the OED there has been confusion from the start over which plants the word names, and the fodder sense may come partly from Dutch raap “turnip, rape”.^[2][1] Rape oil is from the 1540s and rapeseed from the 1570s.^[1] Grown as fodder for cattle and sheep, it gives an oil used in cooking, known as canola.^[1]

Timeline

• 1398 – turnip; the rape plant.^[6][2]
• 1540s – rape oil.^[1]
• 1570s – rapeseed.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A plant of the mustard family with yellow flowers, grown for its seeds, which give oil, and as food for animals.

Related words

• rapid
• rapt
• rapture
• ravish
• rapeseed
• turnip

Usage notes

A rape is also one of the six old divisions of Sussex (1086), from Old English rāp, the source of rope, perhaps because land was marked out with ropes.^[6][8][3] Rape is also the stalks of grapes left after pressing, from French râpe.^[3] The AHD notes that although the verb has three senses, few people think of it as having more than one.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d 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 Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press