- supine of
Old English edit
From Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz (whence also Old Frisian *rat). The various cognates reflect different preforms. The most common would be the feminine ō-stem *rattā: Old Frisian *ratte, Old Saxon ratta, Old Dutch *ratta, Old High German ratza. Old High German rato and ratta can only reflect borrowings post-dating the High German consonant shift, thus the non-geminate /t/ in rato is of unknown significance.