Etymologically
Log in

ride

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 17:44. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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