Meaning and Origin
What does the name Race mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Race
User Submitted Origins
Scottish
43%
American
29%
English
29%
User Submitted Meanings
- A submission from Oregon, U.S. says the name Race means "Angel from the heavens" and is of American origin.
International Interest
Also see international interest
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
verb Race
To raze.
noun Race
A root.
Etymology: OF. raïz, L. radix -icis. See Radix
noun Race
Senses
- The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed."The whole race of mankind." [Shak.]"Whence the long race of Alban fathers come." [Dryden.]
- Company; herd; breed."For do but note a wild and wanton herd, Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds." [Shak.]
- [Bot] A variety of such fixed character that it may be propagated by seed.
- Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack."A raceof heaven." [Shak.]"Is it [the wine] of the right race ?" [Massinger.]
- Hence, characteristic quality or disposition.(Obs)"And now I give my sensual race the rein." [Shak.]"Some . . . great race of fancy or judgment." [Sir W. Temple.]synonyms: Lineage; line; family; house; breed; offspring; progeny; issue.
Note: ☞ Naturalists and ethnographers divide mankind into several distinct varieties, or races. Cuvier refers them all to three, Pritchard enumerates seven, Agassiz eight, Pickering describes eleven. One of the common classifications is that of Blumenbach, who makes five races: the Caucasian, or white race, to which belong the greater part of the European nations and those of Western Asia; the Mongolian, or yellow race, occupying Tartary, China, Japan, etc.; the Ethiopian, or negro race, occupying most of Africa (except the north), Australia, Papua, and other Pacific Islands; the American, or red race, comprising the Indians of North and South America; and the Malayan, or brown race, which occupies the islands of the Indian Archipelago, etc. Many recent writers classify the Malay and American races as branches of the Mongolian. See Illustration in Appendix.
Etymology: F. race; cf. Pr. & Sp. raza, It. razza; all from OHG. reiza line, akin to E. write. See Write
noun Race
Senses
- A progress; a course; a movement or progression.
- Esp., swift progress; rapid course; a running."The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts." [Bacon.]
- Hence: The act or process of running in competition; a contest of speed in any way, as in running, riding, driving, skating, rowing, sailing; in the plural, usually, a meeting for contests in the running of horses; as, he attended the races ."The race is not to the swift." [Eccl. ix. 11.]"I wield the gauntlet, and I run the race." [Pope.]
- Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life."My race of glory run, and race of shame." [Milton.]
- A strong or rapid current of water, or the channel or passage for such a current; a powerful current or heavy sea, sometimes produced by the meeting of two tides; as, the Portland Race; the Race of Alderney.
- The current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel in which it flows; a mill race.
- [Mach] A channel or guide along which a shuttle is driven back and forth, as in a loom, sewing machine, etc.
Note: ☞ The part of the channel above the wheel is sometimes called the headrace, the part below, the tailrace.
Etymology: OE. ras res rees, AS. rǣs a rush, running; akin to Icel. rās course, race. √118
verb Race
Senses
- To run swiftly; to contend in a race; as, the animals raced over the ground; the ships raced from port to port.
- [Steam Mach] To run too fast at times, as a marine engine or screw, when the screw is lifted out of water by the action of a heavy sea.
verb Race
Senses
- To cause to contend in a race; to drive at high speed; as, to race horses.
- To run a race with.
Other Dictionary Sources
- A canal for a current of water
- A contest of speed ("the race is to the swift")
- Any competition ("the race for the presidency")
- People who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock ("some biologists doubt that there are important genetic differences between races of human beings")
- (biology) a taxonomic group that is a division of a species; usually arises as a consequence of geographical isolation within a species
- The flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller
- Compete in a race ("let's race and see who gets there first")
- Move hurridly ("The cars raced down the street")
- Cause to move fast or to rush or race ("The psychologist raced the rats through a long maze")
- To work as fast as possible towards a goal, sometimes in competition with others
Wiktionary
From Middle English race, from Old Norse rás (“a running, race”), from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Akin to Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), Middle Low German râs (“a strong current”), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”). Compare Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras.
- A contest between people, animals, vehicles, etc. where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective. Example: Several horses run in a horse race, and the first one to reach the finishing post wins
- The around the park was won by Johnny, who ran faster than the others.
- We had a to see who could finish the book the quickest.
- Swift progress; rapid motion; an instance of moving or driving at high speed.
- (computing) A race condition.
- A progressive movement toward a goal.
- the to cure cancer
- A fast-moving current of water, such as that which powers a mill wheel.
- A water channel, esp. one built to lead water to or from a point where it is utilised.
- Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life.
- The bushings of a rolling element bearing which contacts the rolling elements.
From Middle French race, from Italian razza, of uncertain origin.
- A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics:
- A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare ethnic group). 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.
- was a significant issue during apartheid in South Africa.
- The Native Americans colonized the New World in several waves from Asia, and thus they are considered part of the same Mongoloid .
- A large group of sentient beings distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare species, subspecies).
- A treaty was concluded between the of elves and the of men.
- A group of people distinguished from others on the basis of shared social characteristics.
- (taxonomy) A population geographically separated from others of its species that develops significantly different characteristics; an informal term for a subspecies.
- A breed or strain of domesticated animal.
- (figuratively) A category or species of something that has emerged or evolved from an older one (with an implied parallel to animal breeding or evolutionary science).
- The advent of the Internet has brought about a new of entrepreneur.
- Recent developments in artificial intelligence has brought about a new of robots that can perform household chores without supervision.
- (obsolete) 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.
- (obsolete) Characteristic quality or disposition.
theories
- Diez and some other scholars suggest derivation from Proto-Germanic *raitō (whence Old High German reiza (“line”) and Old Norse 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 (raʾs, “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).
- A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics:
- A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare ethnic group). 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.
- was a significant issue during apartheid in South Africa.
- The Native Americans colonized the New World in several waves from Asia, and thus they are considered part of the same Mongoloid .
- A large group of sentient beings distinguished from others on the basis of a common heritage (compare species, subspecies).
- A treaty was concluded between the of elves and the of men.
- A group of people distinguished from others on the basis of shared social characteristics.
- (taxonomy) A population geographically separated from others of its species that develops significantly different characteristics; an informal term for a subspecies.
- A breed or strain of domesticated animal.
- (figuratively) A category or species of something that has emerged or evolved from an older one (with an implied parallel to animal breeding or evolutionary science).
- The advent of the Internet has brought about a new of entrepreneur.
- Recent developments in artificial intelligence has brought about a new of robots that can perform household chores without supervision.
- (obsolete) 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.
- (obsolete) Characteristic quality or disposition.
From Middle French [Term?], from Latin radix.
- A rhizome or root, especially of ginger.
race was also found in the following language(s): Danish, Dutch, French, Middle French, and Polish