Rāçe1, n.
n. [Fr. race, Pr., Sp., & Pg. raza, It. razza, from O. H. Ger. reiza, line; not from the Lat. radix, root, though in some of its senses influenced by it.] 1. The descendants of a common ancestor; a family, tribe, people, or nation, believed or presumed to belong to the same stock; a lineage; a breed. Hence the long race of Alban fathers come. Dryden. Naturalists and ethnographers divide mankind into several distinct varieties or races. Cuvier refers them all to three; Pritchard enumerates seven; Agassiz eight; Pickering describes eleven; but the common classification is that of Blumenbach, who makes five. First is the Caucasian, or white race, to which belong the greater part of the European nations and those of Western Asia; second, the Mongolian, or yellow race, occupying Tartary, China, Japan, &c.; third, the Ethiopian, or negro race, occupying all Africa, except the north; fourth, the American, or red race, containing the Indians of North and South America; and, fifth, the Malayan, or brown race, occupying the islands of the Indian Archipelago, &c. Caucasian Race. 2. Company; herd. For do but note a wild and wanton herd, A race of youthful and unhandled colts, Fetching mad bounds. Shak.
- (Bot.) A marked variety which may be propagated by seed. Henslow.
- Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicate origin in a noble or precious wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack. “A race of heaven.” Shak.
There came not six days since from Hull a pipe Of rich canary. Is it of the right race? Massinger. 5. Hence, characteristic quality or disposition. And now I give my sensual race the rein. Shak. They must owe it to some . . . great race of fancy or judgment in contrivance. Sir Wm. Temple. 6. A root. “A race or two of ginger.” Shak. Syn.—Lineage; line; family; house; breed; offspring; progeny; issue.
