I was reading along in Miri Rubin’s NYRB review of Christian Supremacy: Reckoning with the Roots of Antisemitism and Racism by Magda Teter (archived) when I got to this:
The promotion of “purity of blood” (limpieza de sangre)—first legally applied in 1449—introduced distinctions aimed at separating New Christians, or recent converts, from Old Christians in Castile and later across the Hispanic world. The Castilian word raça, meaning a defect in a gem or piece of cloth, came to describe an immutable human quality.
I thought “I never heard that,” and dashed to Wiktionary, where I found “via Middle French race from Italian razza (early 14th century), of uncertain origin.” That sounded familiar; the linked razza page says “The etymology of this word is uncertain, with a large number of controversially discussed suggestions,” and it lists a number of those suggestions, none of which involves Castilian raça.
So I went to the OED, where I found that the entry had been revised as recently as 2008; their etymology says:
< Middle French, French race group of people connected by common descent (c1480 as rasse), offspring, descendants (1496), subdivision of a species represented by a certain number of individuals with hereditary characteristics (c1500), […], subdivision of humankind which is distinguished from others by the relative frequency of certain hereditary traits (1684) < Italian razza kind, species (a1388; earlier as masculine noun razzo (c1300 in sense ‘descent, lineage’, with reference to a horse)), group of individuals of an animal or vegetable species which are differentiated from another group of the same species by one or more characteristics which are constant and hereditary (a1446), offspring, descendants (15th cent.), further etymology uncertain and disputed. Compare Old Occitan rassa gang (late 12th cent.; Occitan raça), plot, conspiracy (13th cent.). Compare also Catalan raça (c1400), Spanish raza (1438), Portuguese raça (1473).
Notes
Various explanations of the origin of Italian razza have been suggested. Two of the most popular of these suggest a Latin origin: one theory suggests a derivation < classical Latin ratiō ratio n., while the other sees the word as being shortened < classical Latin generātiō generation n. An alternative explanation (and one supported by modern dictionaries of Italian: see e.g. M. Cortelazzo and P. Zolli Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana at razza) derives the Italian word < Old French haraz haras [An enclosure or establishment in which horses and mares are kept for breeding; hence, †a stud, breed, or race of horses] n. For a full discussion and summary of these and various other competing theories see Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch at ratiō.
Nobody mentions any raça ‘defect in a gem or piece of cloth,’ though I presume it’s the same as the Real Academia’s raza² ‘Grieta, hendidura’ (‘crack, fissure’), from Latin radius. As always, all thoughts are welcome.
I’m not an expert in the history of sound changes in the various Romance languages, but it seems not implausible that word A from Latin “ratio” and etymologically-separate word B from Latin “radius” might end up as homophones, in a way which in turn could promote interesting folk etymologies by those who assumed they were different senses of the same word and then tried to explain the semantics of one as somehow a development from the semantics of the other. .
From RAE’s Diccionario de Autoridades:
NB the assumption that the Latin origin is Radix.
Diccionario de Autoridades – Tomo V (1737)
RAZA. s. f. Casta o calidad del origen o linage. Hablando de los hombres, se toma mui regularmente en mala parte. Es del Latino Radix. Latín. Genus. Stirps. Etiam generis macula, vel ignominia. DEFINIC. DE CALATR. tit. 6. cap. 1. Ordenamos y mandamos que ninguna persona, de qualquiera calidad y condición que fuere, sea recibida a la dicha Orden, ni se le dé el Hábito, sino fuere Hijodalgo, al fuero de España, de partes de padre y madre, y de avuelos de entrambas partes, y de legítimo matrimónio nacido, y que no le toque raza de Judio, Moro, Herege, ni Villano. MARIAN. Hist. Esp. lib. 22. cap. 1. No de otra manera que los sembrados y animales, la raza de los hombres, y casta, con la propriedad del Cielo y de la tierra, sobre todo con el tiempo se muda y se embastarda.
An additional meaning from the same volume, with reference to fabrics, though not to defects:
RAZA. Se llama tambien el rayo de luz o del Sol. Trahelo Nebrixa en su Vocabulario. Latín. Radius.
RAZA. Por extensión se dice de la calidad de otras cosas, especialmente la que contrahen en su formación, como la del paño: y hablando de este dice Covarr. que se dixo de Aza Toscano que vale hilo, quasi Reaza, porque las razas de los paños se diferencian por las hilazas. Latín. Genus. Qualitas.
DeepL translation-
RACE. By extension it is said of the quality of other things, especially that which they contract in their formation, as that of the cloth: and speaking of this Covarr. says that it was said of Aza Toscano that it is worth thread, quasi Reaza, because the races of the cloths are differentiated by the yarns. Latin. Genus. Qualitas.
“Radix” seems a plausible Latin root semantically for a meaning like “descendants of a supposed common ancestor” but i don’t know if the necessary historical sound changes would work, especially given that Castilian reportedly has “raíz” as the direct descendent of “radix” with the same literal core meaning of “root.”
it lists a number of those suggestions, none of which involves Castilian raça
A plain vanilla text version of the entry raza in Joan Coromines and José Antonio Pascual, Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano e Hispánico (1980–1991), with discussion of crossing with raça, can be found here. LH readers who cannot read Spanish will be able to copy the text or the url and run it through their favorite online translator easily.
From Slavic verb raziti, oh my, they had some wold hypotheses!
The story reminded me of a false-friend trap I fell into while translating beautiful Argentine lyrics
https://letras-de-tango-en-ruso.blogspot.com/2015/09/suavemente.html
In the lines
Suavemente te bordaré mi corazón
En el raso de tu ilusión
Wiktionary explains that raso is cognate with English “razor”, the common theme is smoothness. And specifically with respect to fabrics it’s satin. The problem was that there is exactly the same textile-word in Russian, сатин, which also refers to a satin-weave textile, but almost always more narrowly, as the fabric used for underwear
The more typical weave-pattern for the Spanish or Italian raso is slightly different and it’s known in Russian (or German) as атлас / Atlas, a fancy fabric often used in embroidery.
A plain vanilla text version of the entry raza in Joan Coromines and José Antonio Pascual, Diccionario Crítico Etimológico Castellano e Hispánico (1980–1991), with discussion of crossing with raça, can be found here.
A very interesting discussion, thanks!
Is any of this influenced by Matthew 5:22, raca?
To Stephen Goranson’s question, this link gives you a bunch of Spanish translations of Mateo 5:22 https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/es/Mateo%205%3A22. Note that using the untranslated “Raca” appears to be the exception rather than the rule, although of course the fact that the Aramaic insult was included untranslated in the Greek has struck many translators into many languages as an adequate-to-compelling reason to do the same. But more of these Spanish versions (I don’t know their respective “market shares” of course) go for an insulting Spanish word instead, such as necio or idiota or insensato or imbécil. Of course these translations all postdate the rise of “raza.” The Vulgate has “racha” but I have no idea how that might have been pronounced in Iberia back then or whether it was preserved rather than translated/paraphrased when the local Dominicans or whoever tried to explain the passage to laity in Castillian.
The Spaniards developed a sophisticated racist classification, but was the word raça a part of this system’s terminology back then? I though that specific attachment of (rather different) racists to the word race is a 19th century (and not very Spanish) invention.
@drasvi: The interesting (I read it via google translate) link Xerib provided upthread has some examples of 16th century negative/pejorative usage in Spanish. It is a historical irony that in modern North American discourse the capitalized https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Raza has become a positive-valence endonym specifically referring to the proud-to-be-“impure” descendants of the mestizaje disdained by those who claimed to value limpieza de sangre.
@drasv. Better a racial classification, rather than a racist one.
Still better: a racy classification.
We’re still far from erase culture.
It. razzo looks to me as a fairly regular outcome of Lat. ratus “fixed, set; (hence) proportion”, so a doublet of rate. I have no idea if the Occitan etc. forms are borrowed from Italian or influenced by the related ratio or whatever.
(Sorry, that looks confused. I was in a hurry and shortened the argument.)
a racy classification
cf Irish racy of the soil
What a great phrase — thanks for that!
Trond: “It. razzo looks to me as a fairly regular outcome of Lat. ratus “fixed, set; (hence) proportion”, so a doublet of rate.”
Fairly regular? You’d need palatalization appearing out of nowhere (Modern Italian does have a noun razzo ‘rocket’, which (Wiktionary says) is inherited from Latin radius). Rather simpler to just start from ratio (noun formed from ratus) to get to razzo.
And since when is ratus (masculine form of participle) a noun meaning ‘proportion’? Rate developed from medieval Latin rata ‘proportion’, abbreviation of the specific phrase prō ratā parte (feminine form of participle).
I mean, it sounds like you’re popping in with “o hai, I discovered a Latin source that Coromines overlooked”, and that would be silly.
Trying to sort out the argument: By “fairly regular” i didn’t mean fairly regular in Standard Italian, but regular in some dialect or other. What I find attractive is that the relationship between razzo and razza would be the same as that between ratus and Late Latin rata, the form that gave Fr. and Eng. rate. But writing this, I realize that even if *rato was the word that first took the meaning “ancestry proportion”, it would have been contaminated with the regular outcome of the related ratio and the unrelated radius. so it’s pretty unnecessary.
Edit: Yes, silly indeed. No “O hai, I’m smarter than Coromines”, but “O, hai, what if it took this strange turn?”. But I really should have let it rest until I was back and had time to finish the thought.
Abbas, that was intended, because the classification in question is not a classification of human races.
My theory of intellect holds that everyone evaluates others based on the side of intellect which she values the most and thus has developed the most in herself.
So everyone is smarter than Coromines, and Coromines is smarter than everyone.
…Not even High German.
I think that’s pretty much the case.
Epimenides the Cretan said all Cretans are liars…
“o hai, I discovered a Latin source that Coromines overlooked”
Hai
Is IPA still with us here ?
(off-topic)
I complained once that I confuse some Arabic (or Tunisian?) f-s with θ-s.
A specimen of such an /f/ in the first (and frequently repeated) word here:
https://youtu.be/bFq5pg5LqDw
(a song about love for Tunisia, as a woman: “even though you betrayed me….”.
This song has been tormenting to me several months. The problem is that this performance reminds me some Russian song or two – and I can’t remember which ones. One of commenters on youtube (not in this subtitled link, though) calls the tune Russian or Slavic (in French). Which is technically not exactly true as the tune is from a Catalan song, but…
There is an earlier (and well known) performance by Mathlouthi where it sounds as Russian something else, but in that case everything is simple: she sings it as if it were a Gypsy song..)
What is the origin of the English word rake as in A Rake’s Progress or The Rake’s Progress (the title of a series of eight paintings by William Hogarth)?
It’s short for rakehell ‘An immoral or dissolute person; a scoundrel; a rake.’ (OED: “In common use from the latter part of the 16th cent. into the 18th cent.”)
Which is from to rake (out) hell ‘(usually in the context of describing a person as villainous or immoral) to search through hell’ (1542 “Suche a feloe as a manne should rake helle for” N. Udall, translation of Erasmus, Apophthegmes f. 116ᵛ).
@M: It’s a clipping of rakehell, which is itself a cutpurse-type compound. It started, as is natural for such a form, as a verb phrase; rake hell meant “collect [or search for] forms [or products] of wickedness.”
(I thought we might have discussed the word rake itself when we talked about “The Cowboy’s Lament”/”The Unfortunate Rake” family of songs. However, it appears not.)
@drasvi: I see what you mean, the song sounds like something from a 60s/70s Soviet singer-songwriter like Okudzhava.
A different origin for rakehell is given in AHD: “Possibly by folk etymology from obsolete rackle, headstrong, from Middle English rakel, perhaps from raken, to go.” This origin goes back to Skeat (1882), and has been repeated in later etymology books — even though Skeat himself changed his mind in his 4th edition (1910), saying of the rakel etymology that “the examples in the N. E. D. show that this is unfounded. And in fact rake-hell is really compounded of rake and hell.”
I find it easier to credit rakehell as a cutthroat-type noun (it’s first recorded in the mid-1500s, when cutthroat names were on an upswing, especially to describe bad people), than as an adjective converted into a noun. The difference in pronunciation between rackle and rakehell would need to be explained, too. But somebody at AHD thought otherwise, and it’s not an oversight; they changed the etymology from rake+hell to rackle between the 1969 and 1992 editions, so it was on purpose.
Very interesting, and it would certainly be nice to learn more. (Calling Xerîb…)