The Origin of the First Meaning of the Term “Race”: from Horses to Humans

Date of publishing:

25.3.2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21104/CL.2021.1.05

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Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.

Abstract:

The study focuses on the etymology and origin of the meaning of the term race, which from its first use on a herd of horses with excellent (riding) characteristics, was to define human groups. Expert research examining the etymology of the word race has found out at more or less three established hypotheses: the "Arabic", "Greek-Latin" and "French" hypotheses. Furthermore, it is the French hypothesis that will interest us, because if the French hypothesis applied then the word race comes from the French haras, with the meaning "herd" (horses) with "aristocratic", "noble blood origin". The original meaning of the term race referred to the quality of "blood" ("origin") of a unique "herd" of horses or dogs. It gradually began to be used for a "quality family" (caste) of a socially "noble" group of people (knights, bishops or king), who spoke of himself in terms of an aristocratic, noble family, origin, thus in the meaning of a noble "bloodline".

Keywords

race, genealogy, haras, linage, origin, etymology, racism

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