Razed to the Ground

Razed to the Ground Razed to the Ground Razed to the Ground By Simon Kewin The englishmonarchs.co.uk web site reports that many monasteries were raised to the ground by Viking raiders during the reign of King Ethelred I. But how can a monastery be raised to the ground? Although commonly seen on the web, the phrase â€Å"raised to the ground† is almost always a misspelling of â€Å"razed to the ground†. Whilst it is possible for something to be â€Å"raised† to the ground, it would, logically, have to be below the surface beforehand. Miners could raise ore to the ground. But when talking about a building or a city the phrase should be razed to the ground. Raze which sounds the same as raise but is a completely distinct word is defined by the Compact Oxford Dictionary as follows : raze (also rase) verb, tear down and destroy (a building, town, etc.). - ORIGIN Old French raser ‘shave closely’, from Latin radere ‘scrape’. The more familiar raise, however, is from a completely different root : verb, lift or move to a higher position or level etc. - ORIGIN Old Norse, related to REAR. As an aside, raise can also be a noun, meaning an increase in salary, although this is standard only in US English. In UK English this would be called a rise. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Compared "to" or Compared "with"?26 Feel-Good Words20 Criminal Terms You Should Know