Etymology

Most authorities derive ME race in these senses straightforwardly from ON, cp. OIcel rás ‘race, running; course, channel; host’ < PGmc *rēs- (cp. further OE rǣs ‘rush, leap, running; onrush, storm, attack’, MLG rās ‘strong current’ and Go Rēs-mēr (place-name cited by de Vries)), and in that case ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc /e:/ (‘long e 1’) would be a straightforward test of loan. But, while the vocalism of the ME word cannot be explained as a direct reflex of OE rǣs, its cognate ON rás is not the only possible alternative and does not convincingly explain the consistent ME spellings with <e> (when at least some instances of ME /ɔ:/ < ON /ɑ:/ would be expected).  Bj.’s preferred etymon (followed by TGD and deVries) is therefore ON ras, cp. OIcel ras ‘rush’, a relatively rare word with no direct reflexes outside Scandinavia, but which is apparently a formation on the a-grade of the same PGmc root as rás, as is the v. OIcel rasa (see rasez). Some input from OFr ras ‘strong current in a narrow channel’ (in turn probably a borrowing from ON) and/or rase ‘watercourse’ (< Lat rāsus) is also occasionally adduced (thus Bj.), but this is probably only relevant to the senses ‘a current’ and ‘channel or bed of a stream’.

PGmc Ancestor

*rēs- or ?*ras-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

 rás ‘race, running; course, channel; host'; ras ‘rush’
(ONP rás (sb.); ras (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far rás, Icel rás, Norw rås, OSw rās, Sw dial rås; Icel ras, Norw ras, Sw dial ras

OE Cognate

rǣs ‘rush, leap, running; onrush, storm, attack’

Phonological and morphological markers

[ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc */e:/ (1)] (may not be applicable)

Summary category

C2

Attestation

MED has a broad range of citations (beginning with c1175(?OE)  Bod.Hom.(Bod 343) 110/8 <race>).  EPNE notes that the word ‘occurs in late minor names, esp. in Mill Race’, and its only citation from a place-name is Gipsey Race, Yks.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1420, 2076; Pe 1167; WA 1513

Morris’s glossary has separate entries for the instances at Gaw 1420 (‘swift course, pace’) and 2076 (‘cut, blow’), and this is supported by Wright 1906: 217 and 1936: 317–18 and Savage 1944: 349. Goll and Osgood both identify raas at Pe 1167 with resse at 874.

Bibliography

MED rās(e (n.) , OED3 race (n.1) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance race, Bj. 96, de Vries rás; ras, Mag. rás; rasa (1), Bj-L. rase, Orel *rēso ~ *rēsan, AEW rǣs (1), EPNE rás