ride [OE] A word related to *road, from a time when horses were the usual means of transport. When people in Yorkshire refer to the three Ridings they are not making any reference to horses. The word for each of the county’s three former administrative divisions goes back to Old Norse thrithjungr ‘third part’, from thrithi ‘third’. Over the years the initial ‘th’ was lost, so that the east, north or west ‘third part’ of the county became a riding. A person who behaves in a reckless or arrogant way that invites defeat or failure is sometimes said to ride for a fall. The phrase comes from 19th-century descriptions of hunters riding in a way likely to lead to an accident. To ride herd on [L19th] someone is to keep watch over them. This North American expression comes from the idea of cowboys guarding or controlling a herd of cattle by riding round its edge. People who achieve a happy conclusion may be said to ride off into the sunset [E20th], a reference to the traditional closing scene of a Western, when the main characters ride off towards the setting sun after everything has been satisfactorily resolved. The proverb he who rides a tiger is afraid to dismount [E20th], meaning that once a dangerous or troublesome venture is begun the safest course is to carry it through to the end, is recorded from the 19th century.