ridley

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɹɪdli/^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline says it came from a common name of the turtles in the Florida Keys.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Webster's Third suggest that it probably comes from the surname Ridley,^[7][8] but the other dictionaries do not accept this.^[2][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sea turtle of the genus Lepidochelys (1897 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Historical Thesaurus).^[7][10]

Semantic evolution

The sources disagree on when the word appears: 1897 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Historical Thesaurus,^[7][10] 1926 in the Collegiate,^[9] and 1942 in the OED and Etymonline,^[11][4] while the Concise Oxford gives the 1940s and Random House 1940–45.^[6][5] It first named the Atlantic species, Kemp's ridley, once also called the bastard turtle;^[8][10] the name was later extended to the olive ridley of the Pacific and Indian Oceans (1952).^[10]

Timeline

• 1897 – first known use (Merriam-Webster Unabridged).^[7][10]
• 1926 – Merriam-Webster Collegiate's date.^[9]
• 1942 – first OED quotation.^[11][4]
• 1952 – the olive ridley (Historical Thesaurus).^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Either of two small sea turtles of the genus Lepidochelys: Kemp's ridley of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic, or the olive ridley of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Word family

• Kemp's ridley
• olive ridley

Related words

• turtle
• terrapin

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
11. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press