rear

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The back part of something.

   My room was toward the rear of the hotel.

2. 2
   verb

   To care for and bring up a child until it is grown.

   She reared four children on her own.

3. 3
   verb

   To breed and raise animals.

   The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years.

4. 4
   verb

   (Of a horse) to rise up on its back legs.

   The horse reared in terror.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Rear meaning “the back” ultimately derives from Latin retro “backwards,” which developed through Old French rere and arrière. English th’arrear, meaning “the back,” was reinterpreted as the rear, causing the initial a to disappear. The verb rear “raise up” is unrelated: it is an Old English word from the same Germanic root as rise and raise.

From Middle English reren (“to raise”), from Old English rǣran (“to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up”), from Proto-West Germanic *raiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *raizijaną, *raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to lift oneself, rise”). Cognate with Scots rere (“to construct, build, rear”), Icelandic reisa (“to raise”), Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (raisjan, “to cause to rise, lift up, establish”), German reisen (“to travel”, literally “to rear up and depart”); and a doublet of raise. More at rise. Related to r…

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary