race

From Middle English race, by two converging routes: Old English rǣs ("a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset"), from Proto-West Germanic rās; and Old Norse rás ("a running, race"), from Proto-Germanic rēsō ("a course"). Both ultimately descend from Proto-Indo-European h₁reh₁s- ("to flow, rush").

The West Germanic branch left cognates in Middle Low German râs ("a strong current"), whence German Low German Raas ("mad rush, rage, fury"), and Dutch ras ("a strong whirling current"). The Norse branch survives in Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras, and Norwegian rås.

1560s, via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin. Partially displaced native Middle English kinde (“kind, type, sort, race, nature”), whence English kind. theories Diez and some other scholars suggest derivation from Proto-Germanic raitō (whence Old High German reiza (“line”) and Old Norse ríta (“to score, log, outline”)), perhaps via Lombardic *raiza (“line”), which Körting notes is a literal rendering of Latin linea sanguinis (“bloodline of descent”). Anatoly Liberman says "the semantic fit is good" but the chronology falters; he says the Germanic word went out of use before the Italian word arose, and he says the intermediary is not attested. * Some scholars suggest derivation from Old Spanish raza, rasa, from earlier ras, res (“head of cattle”), from Arabic رَأْس (raʔs, “head”), but Italian razza predates the Spanish word according to Diez and Meyer-Lübke. * Meyer-Lübke suggested Latin generatio as the root; Körting says "the disappearance of two initial syllables hardly seems credible", but Meyer-Lübke notes the Venetian form narazza and the Old Bellunesian form naraccia, positing that after the first syllable ge- was lost, the remaining (una) narazza came to be reanalysed as una razza. * Gianfranco Contini suggests the Italian word comes from Old French haraz (“troop of horses”), whence Modern French haras (“breeding farm for horses; stud farm”), from Old Norse hárr (“grey-haired; hoary”). Liberman considers this derivation the most likely. * Other suggested Latin etyma: * radius (perhaps via Vulgar Latin radia) (per Baist). ** radix (“root”) (per Ulrich); Liberman says "the semantic match is excellent", and race (“rhizome of ginger”) (which definitely derives from radix) shows that the phonology is plausible. * raptiare (“breed falcons”) (per Körting). * The nominative of ratio (perhaps via an unattested intermediate form razzo), as opposed to ragione which derives from the accusative rationem. * Other implausible suggestions include Slavic raz and Basque arraca, supposedly meaning "stud animal" (Basque arrazza, "race", derives from Spanish).

Mid 16th century, from Middle French raïz, raiz, rais ("root"), itself from Latin radix ("root"). The Latin descends from Proto-Italic wrādīks, from Proto-Indo-European wréh₂ds.

From Middle English rasen, racen, rase ("to scrape; to shave; to erase; to rend; to cleave"), a variant of raze. The verb entered via Anglo-Norman raser, rasere, rasser and Middle French raser, from Old French raser ("to shave; to demolish"), itself from Vulgar Latin raso ("to shave; to scrape"), ultimately from Latin rāsus ("scraped; shaved"), the perfect passive participle of rādō ("to scrape, scratch").

A doublet of rash (etymologies 2 and 7).

From Middle English racen, an aphetic form of arasen or aracen ("to pluck, pull, or tear away or out"), itself from Anglo-Norman aracer and Old French aracier, esracier, esrachier ("to pull off") — modern French arracher — descending from Latin ērādīcāre, the infinitive of ērādīcō ("to root out; to annihilate, extirpate"). The Latin compounds ē- (a variant of ex-, "away, out") with rādīx ("root"), from Proto-Indo-European \wréh₂ds* ("root").

Some sources propose a competing route: Anglo-Norman racer as an aphetic form of aracer, bypassing the fuller Middle English variants entirely. The Norman contribution is thus double, appearing in both the prefixed and clipped forms.