Words related to rapid
winged monster of ancient mythology, late 14c., from Old French harpie (14c.), from Latin harpyia, from Greek Harpyia (plural), literally "snatchers," which is probably related to harpazein "to snatch" (see rapid (adj.)). Metaphoric extension to "repulsively greedy person" is c. 1400.
In Homer they are merely personified storm winds, who were believed to have carried off any person that had suddenly disappeared. In Hesiod they are fair-haired and winged maidens who surpass the winds in swiftness, and are called Aello and Ocypete; but in later writers they are represented as disgusting monsters, with heads like maidens, faces pale with hunger, and claws like those of birds. The harpies ministered to the gods as the executors of vengeance. ["American Cyclopædia," 1874]
"predaceous disposition; act or practice of seizing by force," 1540s, from French rapacité (16c.), from Latin rapacitatem (nominative rapacitas) "greediness," from rapax (genitive rapacis) "grasping, plundering," from rapere "seize" (see rapid).
late 14c., rapen, "seize prey; abduct, take and carry off by force," from rape (n.) and from Anglo-French raper (Old French rapir) "to seize, abduct," a legal term, probably from Latin rapere "seize, carry off by force, abduct" (see rapid). Also figuring in alliterative or rhyming phrases, such as rape and renne (late 14c.) "seize and plunder."
The older senses of the English word became obsolete. The surviving meaning "to abduct (a woman), ravish;" also "seduce (a man)" is clearly by early 15c. in English, but it might have been at least part of the sense in earlier uses.
Meaning "to rob, strip, plunder" (a place) is from 1721, a partial revival of the old sense. Uncertain connection to Low German and Dutch rapen in the same sense. In Middle English, and occasionally after, the verb was used in figurative senses of Latin rapere, such as "transport in ecstasy, carry off to heaven," usually in past-participle rapte, which tends to blend with rapt. Related: Raped; raping.
Classical Latin rapere was used for "sexually violate," but only rarely; the usual Latin word being stuprare "to defile, ravish, violate," which is related to stuprum (n.) "illicit sexual intercourse," literally "disgrace," stupere "to be stunned, stupefied" (see stupid). Latin raptus, past participle of rapere, used as a noun meant "a seizure, plundering, abduction," but in Medieval Latin also "forcible violation."
"celerity of motion or action," 1650s, from French rapidité and directly from Latin rapiditatem (nominative rapiditas) "swiftness, rapidity, velocity," from rapidus "hasty, swift, rapid" (see rapid).
"swift current in a river where the channel is descending," 1765, from French rapides (see rapid); applied by French voyagers to rough, swift-flowing reaches in North American rivers.
"plunder; the violent seizure and carrying off of property," early 15c., from Old French rapine (12c.) and directly from Latin rapina "act of robbery, plundering, pillage," from rapere "seize, carry off, rob" (see rapid).
late 14c., raptour, "a plundering bird of prey;" c. 1600, "ravisher, abductor," from Latin raptor "a robber, plunderer, abductor, ravisher," agent noun from past-participle stem of rapere "to seize" (see rapid). Modern ornithological use is by 1873, from Raptores, the order name of the birds of prey (1823, a Latin plural).
"to prey, to plunder, devour greedily," mid-14c., also ravine, from Old French raviner, ravinier "to seize, pillage; to sweep down, cascade," from Latin rapina "an act of robbery, plundering," from rapere "seize, carry off, rob" (see rapid). Related: Ravened; ravening. Obsolete except as a past-participle adjective.
c. 1300, ravishen, "to seize (someone) by violence, carry away (a person, especially a woman)," from Old French raviss-, present-participle stem of ravir "to seize, take away hastily," from Vulgar Latin *rapire, from Latin rapere "to seize and carry off, carry away suddenly, hurry away" (see rapid). Since the earliest uses in English "sometimes implying subsequent violation" [OED]; the meaning transferred "commit rape upon" is recorded by mid-15c. In Middle English also "to plagiarize; to transport (someone) mentally into an ecstasy." Related: Ravished; ravishing.
