race

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A competition to see who or what is the fastest.

   She won the 100-metre race at the school sports day.

2. 2
   noun

   A competition to win something, such as an election or a position.

   Three candidates are now in the race for president.

3. 3
   noun

   One of the major groups that humans are sometimes divided into based on physical features such as skin colour.

   The law protects people of every race from discrimination.

4. 4
   verb

   To move or do something very quickly because there is little time.

   We raced to the station but still missed the train.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Race has two unrelated origins. The word for rapid movement or a contest of speed comes from Old Norse rás, “current”; the contest sense developed in the 16th century, alongside the sense “channel” or “path,” as in mill race. Race meaning a division of humankind also dates from the 16th century and probably came through French from Italian razza, whose earlier origin is unknown.

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…

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary