the.com/riding
A district you vote in, named by Vikings who couldn't do fractions right.
means One of the electoral districts into which certain regions (notably parts of Canada and historically Yorkshire) are divided for voting and administrative purposes.
from The word has nothing to do with horses — it comes from Old Norse þriðjungr, meaning 'a third part.' Viking settlers in Yorkshire divided the region into three administrative districts, and the term came into English as 'thriding.' Over time the initial 'th' fused with the preceding word (as in 'North Thriding' sliding into 'North Riding'), and the 'th' simply wore away, leaving 'riding.' So despite looking like it should mean 'a place for riding,' it's really a fossilized fraction — a 'third' that lost its math and its consonant along the way.
- yorkshire math
- Originally meant one-third of a county, not a horse
- canada adopted it
- British colonists imported the term for electoral districts
- no horses required
- Totally unrelated to riding a bike or animal
- still official
- Canada's elections laws use riding and district interchangeably