RACE  , an homonymous word of which the

principal meanings are (1) a trial or contest of speed; (2) a tribe, breed, a group of individuals descended from a common ancestor . In the first case the word is an adaptation of O.Nor. rds, a cognate form in O.E. being raes, rush, onset; while the O.E. descendant reese was frequently used in medieval poetry . The particular use of the word for a swift current of water running through a narrow channel, e.g. the Race of Alderney, and for the water conducted in an artificial channel to a point where its power is to be used, as in " mill-race," may be due to the O.Fr. raz or raze, probably of Breton origin . The second word, an ethnical or national stock, comes from Fr. rase, adapted from Ital. razzo, cf . Span. raza . It has been referred to an O.H.G. reiza, line, mark, cognate with Eng . " write," i.e. the line marking descent .