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A section for all you budding etymologists where each week the origin of a word or phrase is investigated.
This week it is..... Raze to the ground
To destroy and sweep completely away.
The expression ‘raze to the ground’, like ‘bated breath’
and ‘just deserts’, is often spelled incorrectly. The sources
of these misunderstandings are the homophones ‘bated’
and ‘baited’, ‘deserts’ and ‘desserts’ and, in ‘raze to the
ground’, ‘raze’ and ‘raise’. Added to that is the fact that
the correct spelling in each case is of an archaic word
that is rarely used elsewhere.
As a child, I heard stories of WWII and of cities like
Dresden and Hiroshima being, as I thought, ‘raised
to the ground’. That seemed odd to me. How could
destroying them with bombs raise them? Were these
cities underground? It makes a little more sense when
we understand that ‘raze’ is the verb that gave rise to
the noun ‘razor’. What’s being said is akin to ‘razored
(that is, shaved) to the ground’. It seems that others are
similarly confused - there are currently (Oct 2009) many
hits in Google for ‘raise the the ground’.
Raze is hardly a common word now (in the UK at least
- there is more use of it in other countries, notably the
USA), but it was in the 16th century; for example, Henry
Howard, the Earl of Surrey, used it in Aeneid II, 1547,
in a context that makes the ‘razored/erased’ meaning
evident:
“I saw Troye fall down in burning gledes. Neptunus town
clene razed from the soil.”
Shakespeare also used it in Henry VI, Part II, 1592:
“These are his substance, sinewes, armes, and strength,
With which he ... Razeth your Cities, and subverts your
Townes.”
The earliest example that I can find of the precise ‘raze
to the ground’ form is in The Glory of England, written
by Thomas Gainsford in 1620:
“King Lewis held nothing in Italy but the lanterne of
Genes, which afterward the Genouais razed to the
ground.”
If you invite your neighbours to a barn raising, you had
better get the spelling right, or the consequences might
be unfortunate.
Is there an English phrase or saying that you would
like to know more about?
Email it to us on [email protected]
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