rail [ME] Rail goes back to Latin regula ‘straight stick’, the source also of *rule. The first rails that vehicles ran along—pulled then by horses—were wooden and date from the early 17th century. Before that a rail was a fixed bar forming part of a fence, which in due course gave us both railings [LME] and the rails of a racecourse. References to railways begin in the late 17th century, followed a little later by railroad [M18th], now the American term but at first used in Britain interchangeably with railway. Someone whose behaviour is out of control may be said to have gone off the rails. The phrase is first recorded in 1848, when railways and trains would have been a novelty. Someone who complains bitterly is sometimes said to rail [LME]. This is a completely different word, and goes back ultimately to Latin rugire ‘to roar’ (see also rut).