THE WORD "RAID " AS USED IN ITALY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—Present-day journalists in Italy are giving an excellent object lesson of how one word of another tongue is adopted and used in an absolutely different sense from that attributed to it in the original language. Every Italian newspaper now designates as " raid " a motor race from point to point as distinguished from those held on a course ; a bicycle run or aviation flight under similar conditions. The origin of the expression long puzzled me until I compared the pronunciation of our word " ride" and its spelling according to Italian letter sounds, for r-i-d-e would, by them, be pronounced as if written "reedy" in English, whereas ra-ede or raid more nearly approaches our rendering of "ride" to Italian ears. They wholly ignore the meanings as given by a dictionary : a RIDE being equivalent to " una passeggiata a cavallo " : a RAID by " una scorreria con oggetto di rubare od acquistare con violenza."
Thus we have a motor "raid" by Prince Borghese across Asia ; a bicyle "raid" from Milan to Rome; an aeroplane " raid" from London to Edinburgh I The effect upon the mind of the British reader is so utterly ludicrous that the vanity of foreign so-called " sportsmen " would be deeply hurt did they but realize what merriment their persistence in this blunder
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