ride

Pronunciation

• IPA: /raɪd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English riden,^[2][3] inherited from Old English rīdan (“to ride on horseback; to move forward; to rock, float; to swing”),^[4][2] from Proto-Germanic *ridanan,^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *reidh- (“to ride”).^[4] It is cognate with Old Frisian rīda, Old Saxon rīdan, Dutch rijden, German reiten and Old Norse ríða,^[4][2] and outside Germanic with Old Irish riadaim “I travel” and Gaulish rēda “wagon”.^[3][5] It is related to road.^[6] The noun is from the verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be carried on horseback; to move forward, as a ship or cloud; to rock at anchor: about 725, in Beowulf.^[2] Middle English riden is from 1123.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of a ship, “to sail, float, rock”, it is from about 1300,^[4] and to lie at anchor is Old English.^[5] The verb in venery is from the mid-13th century.^[4] “To dominate cruelly, harass” is from the 1580s, from the way a rider controls a horse, and “to heckle” by 1912.^[4] Ride out a storm is from the 1520s,^[4] ride herd on by 1897, from cattle driving,^[4] and ride shotgun by 1919, from the armed guard beside a stagecoach driver.^[4] The noun, a journey on horseback or in a vehicle, is from 1759,^[4][7] a spell of riding from 1815,^[4] and a fairground ride from 1934.^[4] Take someone for a ride, “to cheat or mislead”, is American from 1925, possibly from the underworld sense of a car trip ending in murder.^[4][7] A motor vehicle is slang from 1930.^[4] The Yorkshire Ridings have nothing to do with riding: they come from Old Norse þriðjungr “third part”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – to ride; to rock at anchor.^[2]
• c. 1300 – of a ship, to sail.^[4]
• 1520s – ride out.^[4]
• 1580s – to harass.^[4]
• 1759 – noun, a journey.^[4][7]
• 1897 – ride herd on.^[4]
• 1919 – ride shotgun.^[4]
• 1925 – take for a ride.^[4][7]
• 1934 – a fairground ride.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To sit on and control a horse, bicycle or motorcycle as it moves.
2. To travel in a vehicle as a passenger.
3. To be carried or supported by something: ride the waves.
4. Of a ship, to lie at anchor.
5. To harass or tease persistently.
6. To depend on: everything rides on this.

Noun

1. A journey on horseback or in a vehicle.
2. A machine at a fairground on which people ride for fun.
3. (slang) A car.

Word family

• rideable
• joyride
• hand-ride
• outride
• override
• park-and-ride
• hagride
• hayride

Related words

• road
• raid
• rider
• riding

Usage notes

The past tense is rode and the past participle ridden, while rid for both is archaic.^[8]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press