Editing Riding (division) (section)

==Etymology==
{{wikt|riding}}
The word ''riding'' is descended from late [[Old English]] {{lang|ang|þriðing}} or {{lang|ang|*þriding}} (recorded only in Latin contexts or forms, e.g., {{Lang|ang|trehing}}, {{Lang|ang|treding}}, {{Lang|ang|trithing}}, with Latin initial ''t'' here representing the Old English letter [[thorn (letter)|thorn]]).  It came into Old English as a loanword from [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|þriðjungr}}, meaning a third part (especially of a county) – the original "ridings", in the English counties of Yorkshire and [[Lincolnshire]], were in each case a set of three, though once the term was adopted elsewhere it was used for other numbers (compare to [[farthings of Iceland|farthings]]).  The modern form ''riding'' was the result of the initial ''th'' [[rebracketing|being absorbed]] in the final ''th'' or ''t'' of the words ''north'', ''south'', ''east'' and ''west'', by which it was normally preceded.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Ridings |volume=23 |page=319 |inline=1}}</ref><ref>Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Clarendon Press, 1989, twenty volumes, hardcover, {{ISBN|0-19-861186-2}}.</ref><ref name=entymologyriding>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=riding&searchmode=none Online Etymology Dictionary – riding]. URL accessed 21 April 2007.</ref>

A [[folk etymology|common misconception]] holds that the term arose from some association between the size of the district and the distance that can be covered or encircled on horseback in a certain amount of time (compare the [[Walking Purchase]]).