rid

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ridden, ruden, rudden,^[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse ryðja (“to clear (land) of obstructions”),^[2][4][3] or from an Old English *ryddan.^[5] Both go back to Proto-Germanic *reudijaną,^[5][2] from Proto-Indo-European *reudh- (“to clear land”).^[5][2] Old Frisian rothia, Old High German riuten and German roden are related,^[2][5] as is the northern place-name element -royd “clearing”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To clear a way or space, especially to clear land of trees and undergrowth: about 1200 in the OED and Etymonline;^[6][5] to set free, rescue, before 1225.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

From clearing land the sense widened to clearing away rubbish (about 1400),^[6][7] and then to freeing a person or place of something unwanted (1569 in the OED, by the 16th century in Etymonline).^[6][5] Rid of, freed from something troublesome, is from before 1400 in Barnhart and the mid-15th century in Etymonline,^[2][5] while get rid of dates from the 1660s.^[5] In northern English, Scots and American dialect its senses merged with those of redd, to tidy.^[5][6] The noun riddance is from 1535, in the Coverdale Bible,^[2] and good riddance is from 1782, after Shakespeare's gentle riddance (1596).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to clear land.^[6][5]
• a. 1225 – to set free, rescue.^[6]
• 1535 – riddance.^[2]
• 1569 – to free someone or something of a thing.^[6]
• 1660s – get rid of.^[5]
• 1782 – good riddance.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make a person or place free of something unwanted: rid the house of mice.
2. be rid of, get rid of: to be or become free of something unwanted; to throw away or get someone to leave.

Word family

• ridder
• riddance

Related words

• redd

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press