Etymology
1. O.E.
ridan "ride" (as on horseback), "move forward, rock" (class I strong verb; past tense
rad, pp.
riden), from P.Gmc.
*ridanan (cf. O.N.
riða, O.Fris.
rida, M.Du.
riden, Ger.
reiten), from PIE
*reidh- "to ride" (cf. O.Ir.
riadaim "I travel," O.Gaul.
reda "chariot"). Meaning "heckle" is from 1912; that of "have sex with (a woman)" is from 1250; that of "dominate cruelly" is from 1583. The noun is first recorded 1759; slang meaning "a motor vehicle" is recorded from 1930; sense of "amusement park device" is from 1934. To
ride out "endure (a storm, etc.) without great damage" is from 1529. To
ride shotgun is 1963, from Old West stagecoach custom in the movies. To
ride shank's mare "walk" is from 1846. To
take (someone) for a ride "tease, mislead, cheat," is first attested 1925, Amer.Eng., possibly from underworld sense of "take on a car trip with intent to kill" (1927). Phrase
go along for the ride "join in passively" is from 1960. A
ride cymbal (1956) is used by jazz drummers for keeping up continuous rhythm, as opposed to a
crash cymbal (
ride as "rhythm" in jazz slang is recorded from 1936).
2. From Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną (“to ride”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreydʰ- (“to ride”), from *h₃reyH- (“to move”), from *h₃er- (“to move, stir”).
3. Cognates
4. From Proto-Germanic: North Frisian ride, ridj, rir (“to ride”), West Frisian ride (“to ride”), Dutch rijden, ryden (“to ride; to drive”), German reiten, reuten (“to ride”), German Low German rieden (“to ride; to drive”), Limburgish rieje (“to ride; to drive”), Luxembourgish reiden (“to ride”), Vilamovian raeita, rajta (“to ride”), Danish ride (“to ride”), Faroese and Icelandic ríða (“to ride”), Norwegian Bokmål ri, ride (“to ride”), Norwegian Nynorsk ri, rida, ride (“to ride”), Swedish rida (“to ride”).
5. From Indo-European: Cornish ardh (“height”), Irish arad, ard, árd (“high, tall”), Manx ard (“high, tall”), Scottish Gaelic àrd (“high”), Welsh ardd (“hill, upland”), Latin irrītō (“to excite, incite, stimulate; to exasperate”), Ancient Greek ὀρῑ́νω (orī́nō, “to move, stir”), Albanian rashë (“to have fallen; to have flopped”), Russian ре́ять (réjatʹ, “to fly, hover, soar”), Armenian հառնել (haṙnel, “to get up; to rise up”), Northern Kurdish rîtin (“to shit”), Persian ریدن (ridan, “to shit; to fuck up, to screw up”), Tocharian A ar- (“to evoke; to produce, yield”), Tocharian B er- (“to evoke; to produce, yield”), Hittite 𒅈𒉡𒊻𒍣 (ar-nu-uz-zi, “to address, send”), Sanskrit रीति (rīti, “course, motion; current, stream; line, row”). See: Middle English '
riden', Proto-Germanic '
*rīdaną', Frisian, Northern 'ride', Dutch '
rijden', German, old spelling '
reiten', Luxembourgish '
reiden', Wymysorys '
raeita', Danish '
ride', Norwegian '
ri', Norwegian, nynorsk '
ri', Swedish '
rida', Cornish '
ardh', Latin '
irrītō', Russian '
ре́ять', Armenian '
հառնել'.
Verbs referencing "ride"
Danish
ride, Norwegian
ri, Faroese
ríða, Icelandic
ríða, German, old spelling
reiten, Norwegian, nynorsk
rida, Luxembourgish
reiden, German, Pennsylvania
reide, Welsh
reidio.