how come we say "raise" something

[crisgal]

to the ground? It doesn't really make any sense!

[delboy3]

It isn't "raise", it's "raze".

[vulcan]

it's a different spelling, the word is rase or more normally raze. possibly from the french raser, shave close.

[crisgal]

well, i never knew that!
My way would never have made sense would it?!

[Beatrice35]

Fascinating ;-) We fought the French many times over the centuries, yet, we still have many of their marvellous words in our language so much to thank them for:-)

[heathfield]

Yeah, Beatrice, but so many of those French words came from Latin, so thanks to the Romans!

[Beatrice35]

Very true! The Romans did a great deal for us- we have a much to be thankful for to the Romans that is for certain ;-)

[jackthehat]

What have the Romans ever done for us..........? :o)

[crisgal]

what about the vikings? Did they ever come?

[fredpuli47]

The Viking invaders ruled all of England north of a line from Chester to London during the 9th Century.They did influence our language; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are all from Norse, the Viking language, as are many other words e.g law, anger,birth, sleuth, muck and knife

[jno]

you can tell where the Vikings were by their place names - especially towns ending in -by, which is Scandinavian.

Some words came from Latin but the Normans - who were really Vikings, 'Northmen', who'd settled on the French coast - introduced many others. Sometimes you get one word from each language existing side by side such as 'regal' from Latin and 'royal' from French.

[legendis.god]

Latin erasus, past participle of eradere, from e- + radere to scratch, scrape


Raze is from the latin word


DID THAT HELP ?

[Ice.Maiden]

Yes, raze means to tear down completely, or to demolish. When something's "razed to the ground", the expression comes from when ice was hacked away to the bare ground, for instance.