Does Anyone Know Why or How it Got Called "Race" ?

[Wiley50]

Is anyone in a hurry?

Is there some sort of competition I don't see and don't want to play if I did?

If me or anyone else doesn't want to play the game, can we be colorless?

I'm only being halfway facetious here. I really want to know why it's called "Race"

[BlooInBloo]

1. www.etymonline.com

[TahitiNut]

2. Yup. GMTA

race (2)
"people of common descent," c.1500, from M.Fr. razza "race, breed, lineage," possibly from It. razza, of unknown origin (cf. Sp., Port. raza). Original senses in Eng. included "wines with characteristic flavor" (1520), "group of people with common occupation" (c.1500), and "generation" (c.1560). Meaning "tribe, nation, or people regarded as of common stock" is from c.1600. Modern meaning of "one of the great divisions of mankind based on physical peculiarities" is from 1774 (though even among anthropologists there never has been an accepted classification of these). Klein suggests these derive from Arabic ra's "head, beginning, origin" (cf. Heb. rosh). O.E. þeode meant both "race" and "language;" as a verb, geþeodan, it meant "to unite, to join." Racial is first attested 1862. Race-riot attested from 1890.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=race

There's also a discussion thread in the sci.lang newsgroup at http://groups.google.com/group/sci.lang/browse_thread/thread/65ec10ca223e0dde/d2428050e3fa6d4e?lnk=st&q=German+lexicographers+seem+to+have+agreed+that+%22race%22%2F%22Rasse%22+comes+from+Arabic+%2Fra's%2F+'head'%2C&rnum=1

[Wiley50]

4. see #3 plus How in the world did it get applied to NASCAR? (scratching head real hard) n/t

[Wiley50]

3. Thanks! (I Think)

Damn! I'm gonna be busy for a long, long time

[hootinholler]

5. Because one chases the other?

:shrug:

-Hoot