RAID
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 PRONUNCIATION : rd
NOUN : 1. A surpris attack by a small armed force. 2. A sudden forcible entry into a place by police: a raid on a gambling den. 3. An entrance into another's territory for the purpose of seizing goods or valuables. 4. A predatory operation mounted against a competitor, especially an attempt to lure away the personnel or membership of a competing organization. 5. An attempt to seize control of a company, as by acquiring a majority of its stock. 6. An attempt by speculators to drive stock prices down by coordinated selling.
VERB: Inflected forms: raid·ed, raid·ing, raids
TRANSITIVE VERB : To make a raid on. INTRANSITIVE VERB : To conduct a raid or participate in one.
TRANSITIVE VERB : To make a raid on. INTRANSITIVE VERB : To conduct a raid or participate in one.
ETYMOLOGY: Scots, raid on horseback, from Middle English rade, from Old English rd, a riding, road. See reidh - in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: raider —
NOUN WORD HISTORY: Few soldiers traveling a road to carry out a raid would connect the words road and raid. However, both descend from the same Old English word rd. Old English rd meant "the act of riding" and "the act of riding with a hostile intent; that is, a raid," senses that no longer exist for our word road. The ai in raid represents the standard development in the northern dialects of Old English long a, while the oa in road represents the standard development of Old English long a in the rest of the English dialects. It was left to Sir Walter Scott to revive the Scots form raid with the sense "a military expedition on horseback." The Scots were not the only once conducting raids, however. We find these words in the Middle English Coventry Leet Book: "aftur a Rode … made uppon the Scottes at thende of this last somer." While road is not used in this way any more in English, a trace of this usage is still detectable in the compound inroad, literally "a riding or advance on or in."
Appendix I
Indo-European Roots
ENTRY: reidh-
TO RIDE
Derivatives include raid, road, and array.
I. Basic form *reidh-.
1. Ride, from Old English rdan, to ride, from Germanic *rdan.
2. Palfrey, from Latin verdus, post horse, from Celtic *wo-rd- (*wo-, under; see upo).
II. O-grade form *roidh-.
1a. raid, road, from Old English rd, a riding, road, from Germanic *raid-;
1b. raddle1 , from Middle High German reidel, rod between upright stakes (< "wooden horse"), possibly from Germanic *raid- (see a).
2. Probably Germanic *raid-ja-.ready ; already, from Old English ræde, geræde, ready (< "prepared for a journey").
3. Probably Germanic *raidjan.raiment ; array, curry1 , from Vulgar Latin *-rdre, to arrange. (Pokorny reidh- 861.)
