English
razor
Razor comes from Old French rasour, from raser ‘to scrape, to shave’, and ultimately from Latin rāsus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErāsus
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*rāsāre‘shave’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400raser‘to scrape, to shave’
- Old French, derivedc. 842–1400rasour
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rasour
- Englishearliest quotation 1868razor
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErāsus
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*rāsāre‘shave’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400raser‘to scrape, to shave’
- Old French, derivedc. 842–1400rasour
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rasour
- Englishearliest quotation 1868razor
Earliest quotation: 1868, George MacDonald, London: Hurst & Blackett: “He thought likewise, that what with razoring and tanning,…”
Equivalent to raze + -or
Proto-Italic *razdō
…
Latin rāsus ‘scraped’
Vulgar Latin *raso ‘to shave’
Anglo-Norman raser
Middle English rasen
English raze
Linked words
through Latin rāsus
Today it means
noun A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or other parts of the body.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin rāsus / razor