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rash

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Pronunciation

rash1 hasty, reckless

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English rasch,[2][3][4] a Scottish and northern word,[5][3] probably inherited from Old English *ræsc, not recorded,[6][7][8] although Etymonline and Barnhart point to the second part of līgræsc (“flash of lightning”).[5][2][9] Merriam-Webster, Klein and Partridge instead take it from Middle Dutch rasch (“quick”) or Middle Low German rasch,[3][10][11] and Barnhart allows for both.[2] Its relatives include Old Frisian rosk (“quick”), Old High German rasc (“quick, strong”) (modern rasch (“quick, fast”)), Old Norse rǫskr (“vigorous, brave”) and Swedish rask,[6][7][10][5] from Proto-Germanic *raskaz.[5][12][8][7] Ayto relates the Germanic base to rather, and Etymonline to Old English horsc (“quick-witted”).[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Active, quick, eager: about 1380, according to Barnhart, already in the sense "impetuous";[2] the OED's first quotation for "hasty, reckless" is from about 1400, in Pearl.[6] Barnhart and Etymonline find it earlier as a surname, Rasshe in 1316.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The first senses, "nimble, quick, vigorous", are now dialectal:[5][13][7] in Scotland and northern England an old person could still be called rash, meaning hale and hearty, in the 19th century.[14][6] Etymonline dates the sense "reckless, heedless of consequences" from about 1500,[5] and Hoad from the 16th century.[7] From 1533 the word was used of actions and speech as well as people.[6] Shakespeare also used it for a thing that acts quickly and strongly, and once for "urgent".[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "hasty; violent; precipitate; acting without caution or reflection".[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1380 – rasch, active, impetuous.[2]
  • c. 1400 – hasty, reckless.[6]
  • before 1475 – adverb, rashly.[6]
  • 1533 – of actions or speech, ill-considered.[6]
  • 1600 – of a thing, acting quickly and strongly (obsolete by 1876).[6]
  • 1805 – of an old person, active, hale (Scottish and northern).[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Acting without enough thought for the consequences; reckless, impetuous: Don't be rash; sleep on the offer first.[16][3][6]
  2. Of an action, word or decision: done in too much haste; ill-advised: a rash purchase.[16][6][3]
  3. (Scotland and northern England, dialect) Active and vigorous, especially of an old person; hale.[3][6][14]

Adverb

  1. (archaic) Rashly.[3][6]

Word family

  • rashly
  • rashness

rash2 skin eruption

Etymology

The skin eruption is probably borrowed from French rache (“eruption of the skin, scurf, scabies”), also rasche, obsolete in French,[6][3][2][5] recorded in Middle French as raiche about 1335.[6][3] That noun comes from racher (“to scrape, scratch”),[6][3] from Vulgar Latin *rāsicō (“to scrape”),[6][3][5][2] from Latin rādō (“to scrape, shave”), past participle rāsus, the source of raze.[6][5][2][10] Etymonline and Klein compare Old Occitan rascar and Spanish rascar (“to scrape, scratch”),[5][10] and the OED and the Shorter Oxford Italian raschia (“itch”).[6][13][7] Hoad notes that the late appearance of the English word is against a direct link,[7] and Ayto takes the Old Northern French form of the same word as a possible source of rascal.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An outbreak of spots on the skin: 1696, in G. Harvey's Treatise of Small-pox and Measles, in the OED and Merriam-Webster;[6][3] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1709, in Steele's Tatler.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline suggests that the link between scraping and the skin was itching.[5] The figurative sense, a sudden outbreak of many unwelcome things, is dated by 1820 by Etymonline and Barnhart,[5][2] then from 1854, in Dickens's Hard Times, by the OED, which notes that it has no parallel in the Romance languages.[6] To spread like a rash is recorded from 1922, and the originally Australian to be all over someone like a rash, to pay someone intense and persistent attention, from 1965.[6] French took the word back from English as rash in 1799.[6]

Timeline

  • 1696 – an eruption of spots on the skin.[6][3]
  • 1709 – in Steele's Tatler.[2][5]
  • 1820 – a sudden outbreak of something.[5][2]
  • 1854 – the same sense, in Dickens.[6]
  • 1922 – to spread like a rash.[6]
  • 1965 – all over someone like a rash (originally Australian).[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An outbreak of red spots or patches on the skin, as in measles or an allergic reaction: The new soap gave him a rash on his arms.[3][6][13]
  2. A sudden series of things of one kind, usually unwelcome, in a short time: a rash of break-ins on one street.[3][6][13]

Word family

  • heat rash
  • nettle rash
  • diaper rash

Usage notes

A third rash, a smooth fabric of silk or worsted worn from the 16th to the 18th century, is of uncertain origin: the OED compares Dutch and other parallels, while the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster derive it from French ras, smooth.[6][13][3] Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary on rashness and temerity: temerity refers rather to the disposition and to personal danger, rashness to the conduct, going by the feelings without the judgment.[5]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b 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)
  15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins