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Origin and history of rand

rand(n.)

1839 in South African English, rant, "rocky ridge overlooking a river valley," from Afrikaans, from Dutch rand "edge, margin, rim," from Proto-Germanic *randaz "edge, rim, crust" (source also of Old English rand "brink, bank," Old High German rant "border or rim of a shield," German Rand "edge, border, margin," Old Norse rönd "shield-rim, shield," Swedish rand "stripe, edge, verge").

As a unit of currency, adopted by the Republic of South Africa in 1961 (see Krugerrand). Johnson's dictionary has rand "Border; seam: as the rand of a woman's shoe." The Old English cognate survived into Middle English as rand "strip or border of land."

also from 1839

Entries linking to rand

Krugerrand(n.)

also Kruger rand, 1967, South African gold coin (issued for investment purposes) bearing a portrait of Transvaal President Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (1825-1904); second element is rand, unit of decimal currency introduced in Republic of South Africa 1961, named for The Rand, gold-mining area in Transvaal, short for Witwatersrand (see rand).

Randal

masc. proper name, also Randall, shortened from Old English Randwulf, from rand "shield" (see rand) + wulf "wolf" (see wolf (n.)). Compare Randolph.

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    Trends of rand

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    1690s, "aggressive, boisterous," a Scottish word of uncertain origin, probably from rand "to rave," an obsolete variant of...
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    nard
    name of an East Indian plant as well as a precious aromatic unguent prepared from it, c. 1200, from Old French narde (Modern French nard) and directly from Latin nardus, from Greek nardos, a word of borrowed from a Semitic language (compare Hebrew ner'd, plural n'radim; Arabic an
    fere
    "companion" (obsolete), from Middle English fere, a shortening of Old English gefera "associate, comrade, fellow-disciple; wife, man, servant," from Proto-Germanic *forjanan, from the causative of *faranan (source of Old English faran "to go, travel"), from PIE root *per- (2) "to
    reef
    "low, narrow rock ridge underwater," 1580s, riffe, probably via Dutch riffe, from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse rif "ridge in the sea; reef in a sail," literally "rib" (see rib (n.)). Also extended to the low islands formed by coral debris or to any extensive elevation
    free
    Old English freo "exempt from; not in bondage, acting of one's own will," also "noble; joyful," from Proto-Germanic *friaz "beloved; not in bondage" (source also of Old Frisian fri, Old Saxon vri, Old High German vri, German frei, Dutch vrij, Gothic freis "free"), from PIE *priy-
    cent
    late 14c., "one hundred," from Latin centum "hundred" (see hundred). The meaning shifted 17c. to "hundredth part" under influence of percent. It was chosen in this sense April 18, 1786, in a Board of Treasury report, as a name for a U.S. currency unit (the hundredth part of a dol
    rant
    c. 1600, "to be jovial and boisterous," also "to talk bombastically," from Dutch randten (earlier ranten) "talk foolishly, rave," of unknown origin (compare German rantzen "to frolic, spring about," dialectal rant "noise, uproar"). Related: Ranted; ranting. Ranters as the name of
    the
    definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in all the masculine oblique cases

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