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rind

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Etymology and origin of the English word rind

Pronunciation

rind1 bark, peel, outer layer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
899 before 899, Alfred's translation of Boethius
Inherited from
Old English rind via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *rindō

Etymology

The word for bark or peel is inherited from Middle English rinde,[2][1] inherited from Old English rind, also rinde,[3][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *rindō,[1] which Barnhart writes *rendō.[6] It is cognate with Old Saxon rinda, Middle Dutch rinde, Dutch run (“tanning bark”), Old High German rinta and German Rinde.[3][6][5] Its further origin is debated: Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it unknown.[7][5][8] The OED considers it probably from the same Germanic base as rend,[3] as do Barnhart and Klein with Old English rendan (“to tear”),[6][9] and Barnhart reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *rendh- (“to tear”), with a Sanskrit word for a crack or hole as a cognate.[6][3] Etymonline calls the link with the verb only possible,[10] and Wiktionary instead names *rem- (“to come to rest, support oneself”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bark of a tree or plant: before 899, in Alfred's translation of Boethius.[6][3] Bosworth–Toller prints the passage andlang ðæs piþan and andlang ðære rinde.[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to before the 12th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the word for bark, for the outer crust or coating of anything, and in a figurative sense.[3][10][5] The sources differ on the peel of a fruit: the OED and Word Origins have it in Old English,[3][11] Barnhart from about 1150,[6] and Etymonline from the late 14th century.[10] It was the skin of a person in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (before 1413),[3] the coating of a cheese from 1577,[3][11] the skin and fat of pork from 1607,[3] and the hide or blubber of an animal from 1667, in Milton.[3] Etymonline dates "skin of a person or animal" to the 1510s.[10] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "bark; husk".[12] The bark sense is now chiefly Canadian, according to the OED.[3] The verb, formed from the noun, meant stripping bark before 1425, and removing the rind from bacon or pork from 1918.[3] As slang, playing on crust, rind has meant impudence since 1896, often in the phrase immortal rind, which Wodehouse used.[13] In Sussex the wryneck was the rind-bird, because it sings during the spring season of rinding.[14]

Timeline

  • before 899 – the bark of a tree or plant.[6][3]
  • Old English – an outer crust or coating; the peel of a fruit or vegetable.[3]
  • before 1413 – the skin of a person (now rare).[3]
  • before 1425 – verb, to strip off bark.[3]
  • 1530 – the edge or border of something (obsolete by 1608).[3]
  • 1577 – the outer coating of a cheese.[3]
  • 1607 – the tough skin and fat of pork or bacon.[3]
  • 1788 – the hard outer covering of a fungus.[3]
  • 1896 – slang, impudence.[13]
  • 1918 – verb, to remove the rind from pork or bacon.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The tough outer skin of a fruit or vegetable; peel: grated orange rind.[15][2][3]
  2. The hard outer layer on cheese or bacon.[15][2][3]
  3. The bark of a tree.[15][2][3]
  4. (mycology) The hard outer layer of the spore-producing body of certain fungi.[15][3]
  5. The outward appearance of something, as opposed to its true nature.[5][2]
  6. (slang) Impudence, cheek.[13][5]
  7. (obsolete, 1530–1608) The edge or border of something, such as a country.[3][5]

Verb

  1. To remove the rind or bark from something.[2][3]

Word family

  • rinded
  • rindless
  • rindy

rind2 iron fitting of a millstone

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1318
Borrowed from
Middle Low German rīn via Middle English

Etymology

The word for the millstone fitting is inherited from Middle English rynd,[2] probably borrowed from Middle Low German rīn or Middle Dutch rijn,[3][5][2] though the OED also allows that it is a native cognate of those words; their further origin is unknown.[3] Forms without the d in British sources, such as Medieval Latin rina and rinus, recorded from 1276, appear to show that the final consonant was added in English.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An iron fitting that supports an upper millstone: 1318, in the manorial records of Cuxham.[3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1300–50.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An iron fitting that supports the upper millstone; a millrind.[3][2]

rind3 to melt fat

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1526 Acts of Parliament of Scotland
Borrowed from
Middle French rendre via Middle English

Etymology

The verb for melting fat is of uncertain origin.[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as an alteration of an earlier form with e, inherited from Middle English renden, borrowed from Middle French rendre (“to render”), the source of render.[2] The OED considers a variant of that dialect verb possible, but notes that it is recorded in this sense only later and that the sounds present problems; it also suggests association with a variant of run.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To prepare tallow or butter for preservation by melting and clarifying it: 1526, in the Acts of Parliament of Scotland.[3]

Semantic evolution

Wright recorded the verb in Scotland, northern England, Durham, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Devon, with Durham rended the lard out of a pig and with the forms rin and rinn.[14] The OED notes that a Scottish dictionary still found it in use in parts of Scotland in 1968.[3]

Timeline

  • 1526 – to melt and clarify tallow or butter.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (dialect) To melt or render fat, such as tallow or butter.[2][3][14]

rind4 hoar frost

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1575 Gascoigne, Noble Arte of Venerie
Ultimate origin
English rime

Etymology

The word for hoar frost is probably a variant from English rime, with a d added at the end.[3][2] The OED compares the same added consonant in a regional English word for hoar frost.[3] Wright compared Old English hrinde, in line 1363 of “Beowulf”,[14] but the OED calls a link with this word highly unlikely and prefers to read that form as an adjective meaning "overhanging" or "luxuriant".[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hoar frost: 1575, in George Gascoigne's Noble Arte of Venerie.[3]

Semantic evolution

A verb "to form hoar frost", converted from the noun, is recorded in 1648.[3] Wright found the noun in Scotland, Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire, with the adjective rindy, covered with frost, in north Yorkshire.[14]

Timeline

  • 1575 – hoar frost.[3]
  • 1648 – verb, to form hoar frost (obsolete).[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) Hoar frost, rime.[2][3][14]

Usage notes

A further northern and Scottish rind, a low ridge or bank, especially of a river, is recorded from about 1440 in the alliterative Morte Arthure and is probably borrowed from early Scandinavian; in Scotland it also meant a strip of uncultivated land between cultivated strips, from 1730.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ 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 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

  • wiggle · also from Middle Low German
  • sag · also from Middle Low German
  • tramp · also from Middle Low German
  • slag · also from Middle Low German
  • ballast · also from Middle Low German
  • mink · also from Middle Low German
  • wafer · also from Middle Low German
  • shudder · also from Middle Low German
Cite this entry

“Rind.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/rind. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

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