Etymology: Cognate with or formed similarly to Middle Dutch rīder , rīdere , rijder , ryder mounted warrior, coin bearing the picture of a horseman (Dutch rijder , †ryder person who rides a horse or other animal, person who drives a vehicle, (now historical) mounted warrior, coin bearing the picture of a horseman), Middle Low German rīder , ryder person who rides a horse or other animal, coin bearing the picture of a horseman, Old High German rītāri , (in late sources) rīter knight, mounted warrior, person who rides a horse or other animal (Middle High German rītære , rīter also in sense ‘coin bearing the picture of a horseman’, German Reiter also in sense ‘jockey’), Old Icelandic ríðari , ríðeri knight, mounted warrior, Swedish ridare person who rides a horse or other animal (1587), Old Danish rithere (in the compound landrithere pedlar; Danish rider person who rides a horse or other animal, (chiefly in the compounds grænserider , kystrider , skovrider , literally ‘frontier rider’, ‘coast rider’, ‘forest rider’ respectively) official appointed as overseer of a stretch of land, coast, or forest) < the Germanic base of ride v. + the Germanic base of -er suffix¹. The Scandinavian words are probably at least in part after Middle Low German rīder, German Reiter, or both of these.Sense 1a is paralleled in several other West Germanic languages by forms showing a short stem vowel; compare Middle Dutch ridder , riddere , riddare , etc. (Dutch ridder ) and Middle Low German ridder ( > Old Icelandic riddari , Old Swedish, Swedish riddare , Old Danish riddare , ridder , rydder , etc. (Danish ridder )); compare also (perhaps showing a later development) Middle High German ritter , German Ritter (now the usual word in sense 1a; see further ritter n.). The exact relationship of these West Germanic nouns with short vowel to those with long vowel is uncertain. They may either show short-vowel variants of the long-vowel agent nouns, or result from conflation of the long-vowel agent nouns with the unattested reflexes of a short-vowel agent noun represented by Old English ridda rider, mounted warrior ( < a different ablaut grade of the Germanic base of ride v.). Although older etymological dictionaries of various Germanic languages record parallel formations in Old Saxon (ridda ) and Old High German (ritto ), such forms are not actually attested, which appears to weaken the case for the latter alternative. In sense 2 after Middle Dutch rīder, rijder (Dutch (now hist.) rijder ), in same sense, transferred use of rīder knight. The coin was so called because it bore the image of a mounted warrior. Compare Old Frisian rīder , denoting a Dutch coin (in hollandsk rīder ), ridder , riddere , ritter , Middle Low German rīder , denoting various coins in use in the Low Countries and Scotland. Compare later ridder n.² In sense 10b, the rope is so called because it overlies or ‘rides on’ another rope. Compare Swedish ridare (1730 in this sense), Danish rider (1808 in this sense; after Swedish). In sense 16 after German Reiterchen (1891 in the passage translated in quot. 1892; < Reiter + -chen -kin suffix), lit. ‘little rider’.

Etymology: < rider n. (compare rider n. 12d). Compare later ridered adj. 1.