ríða

Forms

ríða (strong)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną (“to ride; to move, swing, rock”),^[2][3] the source also of Old English rīdan, Old Frisian rīda, Old Saxon rīdan and Old High German rītan.^[2][4] Kroonen traces it to Proto-Indo-European *Hréidʰ-e-, with Old Irish rédid (“to ride”) and Lithuanian riedėti (“to roll”) outside Germanic.^[2] De Vries and Falk–Torp add the Gaulish word preserved in Latin rēda (“four-wheeled carriage”).^[5][6]

Kroonen glosses the Germanic verb “to ride; to move, swing, rock”.^[2] Porzig took “to ride” for a Germanic and Celtic innovation from “to rock”, while de Vries thinks “to shake” more likely as the starting point.^[5] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon gives the original sense as “to be in motion, travel”, narrowed to riding and driving as in Celtic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citation, of 1212, is the riding sense: cona hans vas von at riþa þeꜱom hesti “his wife was used to riding this horse”.^[8] A citation of 1225 shows the road taken in the accusative: riþo vakar nekkorar ok drekþo þar hesti hans “they rode onto some holes in the ice and drowned his horse there”.^[8] Larsson finds the past reiþ and riþo in the oldest Icelandic manuscripts.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Iceland, where all travel by land was on horseback, ríða came close to meaning “to journey”, with the road in the accusative: ríða leið sína “to ride one's way”.^[10] The mount takes the dative, ríða hesti; ghosts “ride” the roofs of houses, ríða húsum.^[11][8] Older senses of swinging movement remain: an axe or a beam “rides” at someone, a falling tree or mast swings, a man reels from side to side; and impersonally miklu ríðr um e-t “much depends on it”.^[12][11] ONP finds it most in the family sagas and romances.^[8]

The verb continues as Icelandic ríða, Faroese ríða, Swedish rida and Danish ride.^[5]

Timeline

• 1212 – riþa þeꜱom hesti “ride this horse”, ONP's earliest dated citation.^[8]
• 1225 – riþo vakar nekkorar “rode onto some holes in the ice”.^[8]
• 1250–1300 – ríða in the Eddic manuscript GKS 2365 4to.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. to ride, go on horseback, with the mount in the dative and the road in the accusative.^[11][8]
2. of ghosts, to “ride” a house, sit on its roof.^[11][14]
3. to break in a horse.^[11]
4. to swing, move through the air; to fall or tip over, of a tree or mast.^[11][12]
5. to reel, stagger.^[11]
6. ríða upp, to rise, slope upwards.^[11]
7. impersonal, miklu ríðr um e-t “a great deal depends on it”.^[11]

Word family

• reið

Descendants

• Icelandic ríða^[1]
• Faroese ríða^[1]
• Norn riða^[1]
• Norwegian ride^[1]
• Old Swedish rīþa^[1]
• Swedish rida^[1]
• Old Danish rithæ^[1]
• Danish ride^[1]

Related words

• reiði

Usage notes

A second verb ríða “to twist, knit; to rub, smear”, as in ríða knút “to tie a knot”, has a separate source, Proto-Germanic *wrīþaną, the source of Old English wrīþan (“to twist”);^{[15][10][8][5]} ONP, Zoëga, Cleasby–Vigfússon and de Vries list it under a headword of its own.^{[15][10][8][5]} ONP's first dated citation for it is from 1200: at riþa smyrslom a líc hans “to rub ointment on his body”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 412
3. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 305
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 259
5. ^ a b c d e de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 444
6. ^ Falk, Hjalmar; Torp, Alf (1910–1911), Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg, p. s.v. ride
7. ^ Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. ríða
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. ríða
9. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 264
10. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 498
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ríða
12. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. ríða
13. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. GKS 2365 4to
14. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 346
15. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 473