rhatid

English

Etymology

Traditionally taken to be a Jamaican form of wrathed or wrothed, or possibly from or reinforced by rotted,^[1] but other origins have also been proposed.^[2]

Some other people think, that the origin of the word is from an old welsh novel “Rahtid mi blimey” as it was one of the few books that made it across the pond.

Particle

rhatid

(Jamaica) A swear word, like damn or hell.
- 2004, Sonia Icilyn, One More Chance, →ISBN, page 112:
  "This married man told me his name was Graham Jefferson," she went on, "but his real name is Alan Clayton and he's Bren Hunter's brother-in-law." "But kiss me neck back to rhatid," Sarah cussed, in what was, to her, uncustomary usage of the Caribbean lingo. "They're related?" "Yes," Latisha confirmed.
- 2005, Beresford McLean, Providence Pond, →ISBN, page 236:
  "Let him talk to your rhatid backside tonight!”
- 2016, H M Hanlan, Sunset on the Horizon The Story of a Rebel Woman, Rebellion and the Jamaica Maroon Treaties, →ISBN:
  'No, but dih addah day dem did catch one big rhatid snake doh!' Jackman interjected.
- 2017, Martin A. M. Gansinger, Radical religious thought in Black popular music. Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae, →ISBN, page 93:
  As yet another example for that, Cyaah Gwaan To Rhatid (Lutan Fyah, 2015b) shows Lutan Fyah judging wit di Bible inna mi hand in regard to structural enforcements of gay liberation – 'cause Christ never make such law: (...) Things are changing And a lot a things that papa, mama preached against / Dem a force mi fi tolerate it (...) / Say that cyaah gwaan to rhatid / Mi a judge wit di Bible inna mi hand (...)

Alternative forms

ratid, raatid, rhaatid

References

^ Elisa Janine Sobo, One Blood: The Jamaican Body (→ISBN), page 33 (1993): By picking fruit just as it "turns" from green Jamaicans avoid contamination with rot, which they fear greatly. The expletive rhatid expresses, as a homonym, the connection between rotted matter and problems worthy of wrath, which is pronounced "rhat" (Cassidy 1982, 175).
^ L. Emilie Adams, Understanding Jamaican Patois: An Introduction to Afro-Jamaican Grammar (1991): raatid! or raatid a common mild expletive of surprise or vexation, as in to raatid! Although popular etymology often derives this word from the Biblical "wrath", pronounced raat, it is more likely a polite permutation of ras, a la "gosh" or "heck".

Anagrams

tharid

Jamaican Creole

Interjection