Razed
/reɪzd/noun
Past tense and past participle of raze: to completely destroy a building or place.
Did you know?Raze ultimately traces back to Latin *radere*, “to scrape, shave,” the same ancient root behind words about scraping and erasing—so a city “razed” is, etymologically, a place scraped clean.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*red-
“to scrape, scratch, or shave”
Latin
Latin
radere
“to scrape, shave, or graze”
Late Latin
Latin
rasare
“to scrape repeatedly”
Old French
Old French
raser
“to shave, trim close; level off”
Middle English
English
raisen / rase
“to scrape off; level to the ground”
Modern English
English
raze
“to destroy completely; level to the ground”