race
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: rās
ipa: /ɹeɪs/
rhymes: -eɪs
Forms: form: races
Etymology: 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).
Senses: examples: text: The Canadian race is one of the most vigorous on the globe.
text: Felovves, they ſhall never more us vvithſtonde, / For I ſe them all drovvned in the raſe of Irlonde.
ref: c. 1500–1510, “Hycke-Scorner. A Morality.”, in Thomas Hawkins, editor, The Origin of the English Drama, […], volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon-Press, for S. Leacroft, […]; [a]nd sold by D[aniel] Prince […], and J[ohn] Woodyer […], published 1773, →OCLC, page 89:
text: I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.
ref: 1895 November 11, Joseph Chamberlain, Speech given to the Imperial Institute:
text: What is to become of the French race and the British race—yes, and the German race—if this thing keeps up?
ref: 1917 February, Will Irwin, “War and the Race”, in The Advocate of Peace, volume 79, number 2, page 50:
synonyms: breed
strain
kind
lineage
people
variety
clan
ethnicity
ethnic group
ethnie
nationality
tribe
glosses: A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):
A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage.
examples: text: Race was a significant issue during apartheid in South Africa.
text: The Native Americans colonized the New World in several waves from Asia, and thus they are considered part of the same Mongoloid race.
text: The race to which most anthropologists refer the native Americans is the Mongoloid of Eastern Asia, who are capable of accommodating themselves to the extremest climates, and who by the form of skull, the light brown skin, straight black hair, and black eyes, show considerable agreement with the American tribes.
ref: 1881 July, Edward Burnett Tylor, “The Races of Mankind”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 19, page 309:
text: Colonel Lin Nan: Would it offend you to be loved by a man of another race?
Gladys Aylward: It would honor me.
ref: 1958, Burgess, Alan; Lennart, Isobel, 1:41:15 from the start, in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, spoken by Curd Jürgens as Colonel Lin Nan and Ingrid Bergman as Gladys Aylward, 20th Century Fox, →OCLC:
text: Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
ref: 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2015, page 164:
synonyms: breed
strain
kind
lineage
people
variety
glosses: A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):
A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of common physical characteristics, such as skin color or hair type.
hyponyms: black
white
caucasian
mongoloid
examples: text: The advent of the Internet has brought about a new race of entrepreneur.
text: We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them—they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.
ref: 1838, Abraham Lincoln, Young Men's Lyceum address:
text: His opinion is founded on the alleged fact that there are scarely any drunkards in the wine-producing regions, where people drink wine with their food as freely as we do tea or coffee. "Give us what good wine we need," says the professor, "and the temperance crusade will be wellnigh ended when the present race of drunkards have passed away.
ref: 1872 October 5, Prof. G[eorge] C[linton] Swallow, quotee, “Table-Talk”, in Appletons' Journal, volume 8, number 184, page 386:
text: There's a race of men that don't fit in, / A race that can't stay still; / So they break the hearts of kith and kin, / And they roam the world at will.
ref: 1911, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Men That Don't Fit In”, in The Spell of the Yukon:
text: Indeed, all of us are called to join the race of faith. Our identity as Christians is not a burden or an obstacle for our lives, but is rather a gift, […]
ref: 2009, Eunjoo M. Kim, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, page 249:
synonyms: breed
strain
kind
lineage
people
variety
glosses: A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):
A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of shared characteristics or qualities, for example social qualities.
examples: text: A treaty was concluded between the race of elves and the race of men.
text: There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.]
ref: 1898, Herman Isidore Stern, The gods of our fathers: a study of Saxon mythology, page 15:
text: Imagine a race of aliens that develops on a dimly lit world perpetually shrouded in clouds so that vision would be less useful for survival than on Earth.
ref: 1999, Clifford A. Pickover, The Science of Aliens, page 47:
text: Tali: My father is responsible for the lives of seventeen million people—our entire race is in his hands. And I'm his only child.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:
topics: fantasy
human-sciences
literature
media
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
publishing
science-fiction
sciences
synonyms: breed
strain
kind
lineage
people
variety
glosses: A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race):
A large group of nonhumans distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage.
examples: text: [I]nnumerable popingayes of ſundry kindes are found chattering in the groues of thoſe fenny places. […] For in the raſe of this large lande, Colonus [Christopher Columbus] him ſelfe brought and ſent to the courte a greate number of euery kynde, the which it was lawfull for all the people to beholde, and are yet dayly browght in like manner.
ref: 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Nynth Booke of the Seconde Decade, of the Supposed Continent”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, 2nd decade, folio 83, recto:
synonyms: kind
strain
variety
glosses: A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species
examples: text: Two races are certainly valid. The Atlantic race (P. v. vitulina) is distinguishable from the Pacific race (P. v. richardi Gray, 1864) by skull characters.
ref: 1968 December, Dale W. Rice, Victor B. Scheffer, A List of the Marine Mammals of the World, Special Scientific Report—Fisheries number 579, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Phoca vitulina, page 6:
text: A population that differs signicatly from other populations belonging to the same species is referred to as a geographic race or subspecies. Subspecies are separated from other subspecies by distance and geographic barriers that prevent the exchange of individuals, as opposed to the genetically based "intrinsic isolating mechanisms" that hold species apart.
ref: 2000, Edward O[sborne] Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, 25th anniversary edition, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 9:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
synonyms: kind
strain
variety
ecospecies
ecotype
subspecies
glosses: A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:
A population geographically separated from others of its species that develops significantly different characteristics; a mating group.
examples: text: Nevertheless, as our varieties certainly do occasionally revert in some of their characters to ancestral forms, it seems to me not improbable, that if we could succeed in naturalising, or were to cultivate, during many generations, the several races, for instance, of the cabbage, in very poor soil (in which case, however, some effect would have to be attributed to the direct action of the poor soil), that they would to a large extent, or even wholly, revert to the wild aboriginal stock.
ref: 1859, Charles Darwin, “Variation under Domestication”, in On the Origin of Species:
text: Tree races develop not only in different latitudes, but also at different altitudes and within mountainous regions. Since climate changes markedly with altitude as well as latitude, both kinds of development are included in the term climatic races. In addition, soil or site races may develop in areas similar climatically but characterized by different soil or site conditions.
ref: 1948 June, “Development of Races”, in Woody-Plant Seed Manual, Miscellaneous Publication no. 654, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, page 15:
text: Our genetic evaluation suggests that the morphologically distinct race (Dolores River) is more closely related to the type materials than the ecologically distinct, high-elevation race.
ref: 1995 September 11–14, Loreen Allphin, Michael D[ennis] Windham, Kimball T[aylor] Harper, “A Genetic Evaluation of Three Potential Races of the Rare Kachina Daisy”, in Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plants: Proceedings of the Second Conference, Flagstaff, Arizona, page 75:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
synonyms: kind
strain
variety
glosses: A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:
A strain of plant with characteristics causing it to differ from other plants of the same species.
hyponyms: cultigen
cultivar
indigen
examples: text: For do but note a wild and wanton herd, / Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, / Fetching mad bounds.
ref: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 5, scene 1:
text: They have another breed, called the Dunlop cows, which are allowed to be the best race for yielding milk in Great Britain or Ireland, not only for large quantities, but also for richness in quality.
ref: 1799, Joshua Rowlin, The Complete Cow-Doctor; Or, Farmer's Companion, 2nd edition, London, page 42:
text: Great St. Bernard Dog—This race is nearly allied to the Newfoundland Dog in form, stature, hair, and colors; but the head and ears are like that of a Water Spaniel.
ref: 1875, Augustus C. L. Arnold, The Living World, volume 1, Boston: Samuel Walker & Co, page 88:
synonyms: kind
strain
variety
glosses: A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:
A breed or strain of domesticated animal.
qualifier: animal husbandry
examples: text: Now Mary MacDonald of the Plant Breeding Institute at Maris Lane, Cambridge, has made an interesting study which has duplicated the conditions under which new races arise. And she has produced at least one new fungal race.
ref: 1977 March 24, “Why is cereal fungus so resistant?”, in New Scientist, volume 73, number 1044, page 697:
text: The type of microorganisms is a very important factor influencing the quality of cider. Yeast of various producers and races result in different taste and flavor.
ref: 2018 December, Anna Kolobaeva, Olga Kotik, “Technological Approaches to Cider Quality”, in Advances in Engineering Research, volume 151, Atlantis Press, →DOI:
topics: bacteriology
biology
microbiology
mycology
natural-sciences
synonyms: kind
strain
variety
pathotype
pathovar
glosses: A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species:
A strain of microorganism, fungi, etc.
examples: text: You do not tell me her diſeaſe; and perhaps have not been able yourself fully to underſtand it. I hope it is not of the cephalic race.
ref: 1783 November 20, Samuel Johnson, “From the Letters of Dr. Samuel Johnson”, in Vicesimus Knox, editor, Elegant Epistles, Dublin: Messrs H. Chamberlaine and Rice, published 1790, section 3, letter 79, Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, page 785:
text: Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, / Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
ref: 1786, Robert Burns, Address to the Haggis:
text: Who does not like rhubarb pies? Not sour, soggy articles, such as have brought reproach upon the whole race of pies, but sweet, juicy pies, with light, flaky crust, a compound that has no rival.
ref: 1887 March, Anna Barrows, “Rhubarb Pies”, in The Cottage Hearth, volume 13, number 3, page 69:
synonyms: word: class
word: type
word: category
word: class
word: fashion
word: division
word: family
word: genre
word: ilk
word: kind
word: likes
word: race
word: rubric
word: set
word: sort
word: type
glosses: A category or kind of thing distinguished by common characteristics.
examples: text: Is it [the wine] of the right race?
ref: c. 1625, Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old Debts, act 1, scene 3:
text: On the day following Elizabeth's interview with Gideon, this innocent relish—the olives which gave zest, or the walnuts which gave race and richness, to Monkshaugh's moderate hebdomadal glass of old claret—was not forgotten.
ref: 1827, Christian Isobel Johnstone, “A Country Sunday Evening”, in Elizabeth de Bruce, volume 1, New York: W. Blackwood, page 130:
text: So sang the poet in his pride of place, / And Arthur bade the pages plenish well / The cups of all the kings with wine of race, / Osaye or Algarde, Rhenish or Rochell, / Vernage of Venice, Rhodes or Famagust, / Sweet Malvoisie or Cretan Muscadel,—
ref: 1875, Sebastian Evans, “The Eve of Morte Arthur”, in In the Studio, London: Macmillan & Co, pages 164–165:
synonyms: typicity
glosses: Peculiar flavour, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavour.
examples: text: And now I give my sensual race the rein.
ref: c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act 2, scene 4:
text: […]some great race of fancy or judgment in the contrivance[…]
ref: 1685, Sir William Temple, Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or, Of Gardening:
text: His conversation, too, had a race and flavour peculiarly its own: it was nervous, sententious, and tinctured with genuine wit.
ref: 1807, Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable Henry Home of Kames, volume 1, book 2, chapter 1, Edinburgh: William Creech, page 181:
synonyms: word: attribute
word: idiosyncrasy
word: quirk
word: trait
word: characteristic
word: designation
word: distinction
word: distinctiveness
word: feature
word: trait
word: property
word: attribute
word: hallmark
word: quality
word: parameter
word: race
word: touch
word: whatness
glosses: Characteristic quality or disposition.
examples: text: It behooveth therefore that the Mares appointed for race, be well compacted, of a decent quality, being fair and beautiful to look upon, the belly and loins being great, in age not under three nor above ten years old.
ref: 1658, Edward Topsell, “Of the horse”, in The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents, page 234:
text: Male he created thee, but thy consort / Femal for Race; then bless’d Mankinde, and said, / Be fruitful, multiplie, and fill the Earth[.]
ref: 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book 7:
synonyms: breeding
procreation
progenation
propagation
reproduction
glosses: The sexual activity of conceiving and bearing biological offspring.
examples: text: Yes, madam, believe it, she is a gentlewoman of very absolute behaviour, and of a good race.
ref: 1609, Ben Jonson, Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, act 3, scene 2:
text: Wars of religion, more sanguinary, cruel, and ruinous than even those of Henry the fifth and Edward the third, rise in succession under the three last princes of the race of Valois.
ref: 1785, Nathaniel William Wraxall, “Henry the Second”, in The History of France Under the Kings of the Race of Valois, 2nd edition, volume 2, London: C. Dilly, pages 52–53:
text: That very estate which the Lyndons now possess in Ireland was once the property of my race.
ref: 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion.”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856, →OCLC:
synonyms: extraction
family
house
line
pedigree
stirp
glosses: Ancestry, lineage.
examples: text: In ſeveral orders of knighthood, as in that of Malta, &c. the candidates muſt prove a nobility of four races or deſcents.
ref: 1738 [1728], Ephraim Chambers, “Race”, in Cyclopaedia: Or, An Universal Dictionary Of Arts and Sciences, 2nd edition, London: D. Midwinter:
text: We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them—they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.
ref: 1838, Abraham Lincoln, Young Men's Lyceum address:
text: Perhaps this is the reason why it is an article of faith with the servants, handed down from race to race, that the departed Tisher was a hairdresser.
ref: 1870, Charles Dickens, “The Nun's House”, in The Mystery of Edwin Drood:
text: For the old stock is fast dying out, Jennie, / And a young race is taking their place, / In our grandmothers' day they had sense, Jennie, / No powder or paints on their face.
ref: 1929 December, Johnny Burke, “No Short Skirts To Their Knees”, in Burke's Popular Songs, St. John's, Newfoundland: Long Brothers:
synonyms: age group
cohort
glosses: A step in a lineage or succession; a generation.
examples: text: Have I my pillow left unpressed in Rome, / Forborne the getting of a lawful race, / And by a gem of women, to be abused / By one that looks on feeders?
ref: c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 3, scene 13:
text: The good man besought him. Let the king / Propitious hear a parent. In thy train / I have five sons. Ah! leave my eldest born, / Thy future vassal, to sustain my age!' / The tyrant fell reply'd. 'Presumptuous man, / Who art my slave, in this tremendous war, / Is not my person hazarded, my race, / My consort?[']
ref: 1737, Richard Glover, Leonidas, book 2, Baltimore: Neal, Wills & Cole, published 1814, page 35:
text: There the passions cramp’d no longer shall have scope and breathing-space; / I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race. / Iron-jointed, supple-sinew’d, they shall dive, and they shall run, / Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun[.]
ref: 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems, volume 2, London: Edward Moxon, page 109:
synonyms: get
issue
seed
glosses: Progeny, offspring, descendants.
Derived terms: bronze race
chosen race
critical race theory
cross-race effect
gay race communism
human race
landrace
master race
Mediterranean race
mixed-race
mixed race
play the race card
proto-race
race-bait
race-baiter
race baiting
race-bending
race-blind
race-blindness
race card
race detractor
race feeling
race-fellow
race film
race hatred
race lift
racemate
race memory
race mixer
race mixing
race-monger
race movie
race music
race-norming
race realism
race realist
race record
race relations
race riot
race suicide
race traitor
racy
ur-race
Related terms: racial
racism
racist