Word: race Part of Speech: noun 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. Fully displaced native Old English cnōsl. 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). Pronunciation: /ɹeɪs/ 1. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race): Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The Canadian race is one of the most vigorous on the globe. Example: Felovves, they ſhall never more us vvithſtonde, / For I ſe them all drovvned in the raſe of Irlonde. 2. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race): Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Race was a significant issue during apartheid in South Africa. Example: The Native Americans colonized the New World in several waves from Asia, and thus they are considered part of the same Mongoloid race. 3. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race): Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The advent of the Internet has brought about a new race of entrepreneur. Example: 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. 4. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics (see Wikipedia's article on historical definitions of race): Labels: countable, uncountable Example: A treaty was concluded between the race of elves and the race of men. Example: There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.] 5. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species Labels: countable, uncountable Example: [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. 6. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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. 7. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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. 8. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: For do but note a wild and wanton herd, / Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, / Fetching mad bounds. Example: 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. 9. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics; often an informal infraspecific rank in taxonomy, below species: Labels: countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: 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. 10. A category or kind of thing distinguished by common characteristics. Labels: broadly, countable, uncountable Example: 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. Example: Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, / Great chieftain o the puddin'-race! 11. 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. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: Is it [the wine] of the right race? Example: 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. 12. Characteristic quality or disposition. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: And now I give my sensual race the rein. Example: […]some great race of fancy or judgment in the contrivance[…] 13. The sexual activity of conceiving and bearing biological offspring. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: 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. Example: Male he created thee, but thy consort / Femal for Race; then bless’d Mankinde, and said, / Be fruitful, multiplie, and fill the Earth[.] 14. Ancestry, lineage. Labels: archaic, uncountable Example: Yes, madam, believe it, she is a gentlewoman of very absolute behaviour, and of a good race. Example: 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. 15. A step in a lineage or succession; a generation. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: In ſeveral orders of knighthood, as in that of Malta, &c. the candidates muſt prove a nobility of four races or deſcents. Example: 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. 16. Progeny, offspring, descendants. Labels: obsolete, uncountable Example: 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? Example: 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?[']