race

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Race, racé, race-, and rače

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation[edit]

  • enPR: rās, IPA(key): /ɹeɪs/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪs

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English race, from Old English rǣs (“a race, swift or violent running, rush, onset”), from Proto-Germanic *rēsō (“a course”), from Proto-Indo-European *reh₁s- (“to flow, rush”). Cognate with Old Norse rás (“a running, race”), Middle Low German râs (“a strong current”), Dutch ras (“a strong whirling current”). Compare Danish ræs, Norwegian and Swedish ras, Norwegian rås.

Noun[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
People competing in a race.
A race taking water to a mill.
The outer race of ball bearing

race (countable and uncountable, plural races)

  1. 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 race around the park was won by Johnny, who ran faster than the others.
    We had a race to see who could finish the book the quickest.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiastes 9:11:
      I returned, and saw vnder the Sunne, That the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of vnderstanding, nor yet fauour to men of skil; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
    • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, “After Days of Pressure, Marathon Is Off”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      After days of intensifying pressure from runners, politicians and the general public to call off the New York City Marathon in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, city officials and the event’s organizers decided Friday afternoon to cancel the race.
  2. Swift progress; rapid motion; an instance of moving or driving at high speed.
    • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      The flight of many birds is swifter than the race of any beasts.
  3. (computing) A race condition.
  4. A progressive movement toward a goal.
    the race to cure cancer
    • 1624, Bacon, Francis, “Considerations Touching a War with Spain”, in Basil Montagu, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, volume 5, William Pickering, published 1826, page 240:
      An offensive war is made, which is unjust in the aggressor; the prosecution and race of the war carrieth the defendant to invade the ancient patrimony of the first aggressor, who is now turned defendant; shall he sit down, and not put himself in defence?
  5. A fast-moving current of water, such as that which powers a mill wheel.
    • 1893, “Remarks upon the Way from Abingdon to Southamption, and other Places”, in The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Portland, volume 2, London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 288:
      Here are in these seas two dangerous races, the one called St. Alban's, the other Portland Race.
  6. A water channel, especially one built to lead water to or from a point where it is utilised.
    • 1957 December 16, Mouat, A. H.; Stuart, R. C.; Mason, G., “Farming in Ida Valley, Central Otago”, in The New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, volume 95, number 6, page 587:
      Water for irrigation is stored in the high country behind the Upper Manorburn Dam. Two parallel races at different levels run along the west side of the valley and one race flowing along the east side is supplemented by water stored at the Poolburn Dam.
  7. Competitive action of any kind, especially when prolonged; hence, career; course of life.
    Synonyms: course, progress
  8. A ring with a groove in which rolling elements (such as balls) ride, forming part of a rolling-element bearing (for example, a ball bearing).
    • 1965 August 15, Maintenance of Aeronautical Antifriction Bearings, NAVWEPS 01-1A-503, United States Bureau of Naval Weapons, section 2, page 5:
      These bearings do not employ a loading groove or filling slot but utilize an uninterrupted race groove containing the maximum number of balls that can be introduced by eccentric displacement of the races. Due to the relatively large size of the balls and the fact that the ball curvature is only slightly less than the race curvature, the bearings have comparatively high load carrying capacity in both axial and radial directions.
Hyponyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb[edit]

race (third-person singular simple present races, present participle racing, simple past and past participle raced)

  1. (intransitive) To take part in a race (in the sense of a contest).
    The drivers were racing around the track.
  2. (transitive) To compete against in a race (contest).
    I raced him to the car, but he was there first, so he got to ride shotgun.
  3. (intransitive) To move or drive at high speed; to hurry or speed.
    As soon as it was time to go home, he raced for the door.
    Her heart was racing as she peered into the dimly lit room.
    • 1988, Lee Mavers, “There She Goes”, in Sixpence None the Richer‎[2], published 1997, performed by Sixpence None the Richer:
      There she goes / There she goes again / Racing through my brain / And I just can't contain / This feeling that remains
    • 2013 June 21, Chico Harlan, “Japan pockets the subsidy …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 30:
      Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an "explosion."
    • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 66:
      Racing on, we parallel the M5 doing 95mph, according to the app on my smartphone.
  4. (intransitive, of a motor) To run rapidly when not engaged to a transmission.
    • 1891 (December) Arthur Conan Doyle, The Man with the Twisted Lip:
      "My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built."
Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2[edit]

1560s, via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin.

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”).[1] 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.[2]
  • 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.[3][1]
  • 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.[1]
  • Gianfranco Contini suggests the Italian word comes from Old French haraz (“troop of horses”),[4] whence Modern French haras (“breeding farm for horses; stud farm”), from Old Norse hárr (“grey-haired; hoary”). Liberman considers this derivation the most likely.[2]
  • Other suggested Latin etyma:
    • radius (perhaps via Vulgar Latin *radia) (per Baist).[1]
    • radix (“root”) (per Ulrich);[1] Liberman says "the semantic match is excellent", and race (“rhizome of ginger”) (which definitely derives from radix) shows that the phonology is plausible.[2]
    • *raptiare (“breed falcons”) (per Körting).[1][2]
    • 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[2][1] and Basque arraca, supposedly meaning "stud animal"[2] (Basque arrazza, "race", derives from Spanish).

Noun[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Races of humans by common heritage.
Races of dog.

race (countable and uncountable, plural races)

  1. A group of sentient beings, particularly people, distinguished by common ancestry, heritage or characteristics:
    Synonyms: breed, strain, lineage, people, variety
    1. 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.
      Synonyms: clan, ethnicity, ethnie, nationality, tribe
      The Canadian race is one of the most vigorous on the globe.
      • 1838, Lincoln, Abraham, Young Men's Lyceum address‎[3]:
        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.
      • 1895 November 11, Chamberlain, Joseph, Speech given to the Imperial Institute:
        I believe that the British race is the greatest of the governing races that the world has ever seen.
      • 1913, Martin Van Buren Knox, The religious life of the Anglo-Saxon race:
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
    2. A large group of people distinguished from others on the basis of common physical characteristics, such as skin color or hair type.
      Race 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 race.
      • 1881 July, Tylor, Edward Burnett, “The Races of Mankind”, in Popular Science Monthly‎[4], volume 19, page 309:
        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.
      • 1958, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness‎[5], →OCLC, 1:41:15 from the start:
        Would it offend you to be loved by a man of another race?
        It would honor me.
      • 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist‎[6], volume 100, number 2, page 164:
        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?
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
    3. 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 race of elves and the race of men.
      • 1898, Herman Isidore Stern, The gods of our fathers: a study of Saxon mythology, page 15:
        There are two distinct races of gods known to Norse mythology[.]
      • 1999, Pickover, Clifford A., The Science of Aliens, page 47:
        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.
      • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:
        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.
        (Note: Tali is a Quarian.)
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
    4. A group or category distinguished from others on the basis of shared characteristics or qualities, for example social qualities.
      The advent of the Internet has brought about a new race of entrepreneur.
      Recent developments in artificial intelligence have brought about a new race of robots that can perform household chores without supervision.
      • 1823, Charles Molloy Westmacott, “Pindaric Address to the Royal Academicians”, in Annual Critical Catalogue to the Royal Academy; republished in The Spirit of the Public Journals‎[7], London: Sherwood, Jones, and Co, 1825, page 223:
        That is—I fear you are most harden'd sinners, / Who in close coffers keep the light of grace / From needy brothers and from young beginners, / That it may shine upon your own dull race.
      • 1911, Robert W. Service, “The Men That Don't Fit In”, in The Spell of the Yukon:
        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.
      • 2009, Kim, Eunjoo M., Bartlett, David L.; Taylor, Barbara Brown, editors, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, page 249:
        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, […]
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
  2. A group of organisms distinguished by common characteristics:
    Synonyms: strain, variety
    1. (biology) A population geographically separated from others of its species that develops significantly different characteristics; a mating group.
      Synonyms: ecospecies, ecotype
    2. (botany) A plant with characteristics causing it to differ from other plants of the same species.
      Synonyms: cultigen, cultivar, indigen
      • 1859, Charles Darwin, “Variation under Domestication”, in On the Origin of Species:
        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.
      • 1948 June, “Development of Races”, in Woody-Plant Seed Manual, Miscellaneous Publication no. 654, Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, page 15:
        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 chracterized by different soil or site conditions.
      • 1995 September, Allphin, Loreen; Windham, Michael D[ennis]; Harper, Kimball T[aylor], “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:
        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.
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
    3. (animal husbandry) A breed or strain of domesticated animal.
      • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act 5, scene 1:
        For do but note a wild and wanton herd, / Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, / Fetching mad bounds.
      • 1799, Rowlin, Joshua, The Complete Cow-Doctor; Or, Farmer's Companion, 2nd edition, London, page 42:
        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.
      • 1875, Arnold, Augustus C. L., The Living World, volume 1, Boston: Samuel Walker & Co, page 88:
        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.
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
    4. (mycology, bacteriology, informal) An infraspecific rank.
      Synonyms: pathotype, pathovar
      • 1977 March 24, “Why is cereal fungus so resistant?”, in New Scientist, volume 73, number 1044, page 697:
        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.
      • 2018 December, Kolobaeva, Anna; Kotik, Olga, “Technological Approaches to Cider Quality”, in Advances in Engineering Research‎[8], volume 151, Atlantis Press, →DOI:
        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.
      • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:race.
  3. (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.
    Synonym: typicity
  4. (obsolete) Characteristic quality or disposition.
    Synonyms: attribute, idiosyncrasy, quirk, trait; see also Thesaurus:characteristic
  5. (archaic, uncountable) Ancestry.
    • 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:
      That very estate which the Lyndons now possess in Ireland was once the property of my race.
    Synonyms: extraction, family, line
  6. (obsolete) A series; a sequence.
    Synonyms: line, stream, succession; see also Thesaurus:sequence
    • 1603, Jonson, Ben, Sejanus His Fall‎[9], act 2, scene 2:
      A race of wicked acts / Shall flow out of my anger, and o’erspread / The world’s wide face,
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

race (third-person singular simple present races, present participle racing, simple past and past participle raced)

  1. To assign a race to; to perceive as having a (usually specified) race.
    • 1996, Philosophical Studies in Education, page 151:
      To be raced as black in the U.S. translates symbolically into being considered inferior to whites, lazy, immoral, boisterous, violent, and sexually promiscuous.
    • 2006, Athena D. Mutua, Progressive Black Masculinities?, Routledge, →ISBN, page 30:
      From this perspective, the project of progressive blackness entails the edification of black people and the elimination of all forms of domination that limit this edification for all those raced as black.
    • 2008, George Yancy, Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 46:
      By avoiding being raced as white, whites are able to maintain the illusion that they have always been individuals, that they have always accomplished their achievements through merit alone.
    • 2020 March 24, Sophie Lewis, The coronavirus crisis shows it's time to abolish the family:
      [T]he private family qua mode of social reproduction still, frankly, sucks. It genders, nationalizes and races us. It norms us for productive work.

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle French [Term?], from Latin radix.

Noun[edit]

A race of ginger.

race (plural races)

  1. A rhizome or root, especially of ginger.
    • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, Act IV, Scene III, line 45.
      I must have saffron to color the warden pies; mace; dates, none -- that's out of my note; nutmegs, seven; a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four pounds of prunes, and as many of raisins o' th' sun.
    • 1842, Gibbons Merle, The Domestic Dictionary and Housekeeper's Manual, page 433:
      On the third day after this second boiling, pour all the syrup into a pan, put the races of ginger with it, and boil it up until the syrup adheres to the spoon.
Translations[edit]
a rhizome — See also translations at rhizome,‎ root

Etymology 4[edit]

Verb[edit]

race (third-person singular simple present races, present participle racing, simple past and past participle raced)

  1. Obsolete form of raze.
    Synonyms: demolish, destroy, tear up; see also Thesaurus:destroy
    • c. 1450, chapter 23, in Henry Benjamin Wheatley, editor, Merlin or the Early History of King Arthur, volume 2, Early English Text Society, published 1899, page 424:
      […] and after he be-heilde towarde the fier, and saugh the flesshe that the knaue hadde rosted that was tho I-nough, and raced it of with his hondes madly, and rente it a-sonder in peces, and wette it in mylke, and after in the hony, and ete as a wood man that nought ther lefte of the flessh; […]

References[edit]

  • race at OneLook Dictionary Search
  • race in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
  • “race”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
  • Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, "Razza."
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Eric Voegelin, The History of the Race Idea: From Ray to Carus, volume 3
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Anatoly Liberman, The Oxford Etymologist Looks at Race, Class and Sex (but not Gender), or, Beating a Willing Horse
  3. ^ Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen, "Razza."
  4. ^ Giacomo Devoto, Avviamento all'etimologia italiana, Mondadori

Anagrams[edit]

Danish[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from French race, from Italian razza.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

race c (singular definite racen, plural indefinite racer)

  1. race (subdivision of species)
  2. breed
Inflection[edit]
Declension of race
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative race racen racer racerne
genitive races racens racers racernes

Etymology 2[edit]

Borrowed from English race.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [ˈɹɛjs], [ˈʁɛˀs]

Noun[edit]

race n (singular definite racet, plural indefinite race)

  1. a race (a contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective)
  2. a rush
Inflection[edit]
Declension of race
neuter
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative race racet race racene
genitive races racets races racenes

Etymology 3[edit]

Borrowed from English race.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

race (imperative race, infinitive at race, present tense racer, past tense racede, perfect tense er/har racet)

  1. to race (to compete in a race, a contest where the goal is to be the first to reach some objective)
  2. to rush

Further reading[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Borrowed from English race.

Noun[edit]

race m (plural races, diminutive raceje n)

  1. A speed contest, a race.
    Synonym: wedloop
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb[edit]

race

  1. first-person singular present indicative of racen
  2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of racen
  3. imperative of racen

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

As Middle French rasse "entirety of ancestors and descendants of the same family or people", from ca. 1480, spelling Middle French race recorded in 1549, from Italian razza (13th century), of uncertain origin (more at razza).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

race f (plural races)

  1. race (classification)
  2. kind
    Synonym: espèce
  3. (zoology) breed

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → German: Rasse
    • → Czech: rasa
    • → Polish: rasa
    • → Serbo-Croatian: rasa
    • → Slovene: rasa
  • → Romanian: rasă

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Middle French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

16th century (spelling rasse from 1480), from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin.

Noun[edit]

race f (plural races)

  1. race; breed
    • 1595, Michel de Montaigne, Essais, book II, chapter 11:
      Je le doy plus à ma fortune qu’à ma raison : Elle m’a faict naistre d’une race fameuse en preud’hommie, et d’un tres-bon pere
      I owe more to my luck than to my intelligence. It was luck that meant I was born into a race famous for its gentlemanliness, and to a very good father

Descendants[edit]

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

race f

  1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of raca

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English race.

Noun[edit]

race n

  1. race (competition)

Declension[edit]

Declension of race 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative race racet race racen
Genitive races racets races racens

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

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