rift

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rift,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Norse ript (“breach, breach of contract”) or a related early Scandinavian form;^{[4][2][3][5][6][7]} Barnhart notes that the Old Icelandic word was pronounced “rift”.^[2][8] The OED compares Norwegian rift (“cleft, chink, piece torn off”), Swedish rift (“scratch, split, crack”) and Danish rift (“tear, split, cleft”).^{[4][9][10][5]} The Norse noun is a suffixed form, with zero-grade vowel, of the base of rífa (“to tear”),^[4][3][2][5] the source of rive and riven;^[8][11][6] Etymonline thinks the English word was probably influenced by rive in Middle English.^[8] The verb, Middle English riften, is likewise of Scandinavian origin; it corresponds to ripta (“to break a promise or deal”).^[4][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

An act of splitting or tearing: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[4][2] where the verb, to split or gape open, is also first found.^[4][2] Etymonline dates the noun to the early 14th century,^[8] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The earliest sense, the act of tearing, was gone by about 1540.^[4][9] From the late 14th century a rift was a cleft or chasm in the earth or in rock,^[4][8] and in the 15th century also a crack in anything (about 1425) and a break in clouds or mist (about 1450).^[4][8] Johnson (1755) gave "a cleft; a breach; an opening", with quotations from Spenser and Shakespeare.^[13] The figurative sense, now the main one, a break in friendly relations between people, groups or nations, is recorded from before 1609 in the OED,^[4] but only from the 1620s in Etymonline.^[8] Technical senses followed: oak split rather than sawn (1577),^[4] the planes along which granite splits most easily (1841, chiefly in American mining),^[4] and in geology a major fault with a long depression, as in a rift valley (1894).^[4][8] Since 1963 the verb has been used of land masses and plates of the earth's crust moving apart.^[4][9] In Scotland, Ireland, northern England and Lincolnshire rift was a cleft in a rock in the 19th century.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1325 – noun, an act of tearing (obsolete by 1540); verb, to split open.^[4][2]
• c. 1380 – a cleft in the earth or in rock; a chasm.^[4][8]
• c. 1425 – a crack or split in an object.^[4]
• c. 1450 – a break in clouds or mist.^[4]
• 1534 – verb, transitive, to split apart.^[4]
• 1577 – oak timber split rather than sawn.^[4]
• before 1609 – a break in friendly relations; a schism.^[4]
• 1841 – in mining, a plane along which rock splits.^[4]
• 1894 – in geology, a major fault with a long depression.^[4]
• 1963 – verb, of plates or land masses, to move apart.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow opening made by splitting; a crack or fissure: Water seeped through a rift in the rock.^[7][3][4]
2. A break in friendly relations between people, groups or nations; a schism: a rift between the two brothers.^[7][4][9]
3. A gap in clouds or mist.^[7][4]
4. (geology) A long, narrow zone of faulting where the earth's crust is pulled apart.^[7][4]
5. (obsolete, 1325–1540) An act of tearing or splitting.^[4][9]

Verb

1. To split open, or to cause to split; to cleave.^[7][3][4]
2. (geology) Of plates or land masses, to move apart.^[4][9]

Word family

• riftless
• rift valley
• rift zone

Related words

• rive
• riven
• reft

Usage notes

Two dialect words spelled rift have a separate source.^[4][9] Rift "to belch", and the noun "a belch", are from rypta;^[4][9][3] they are long obsolete except in Scotland and northern England,^[9][14] and Green's dictionary records the noun in Irish and Scottish slang.^[15] In the United States a rift is also a shallow or rocky place in a stream, perhaps an alteration of riff, a variant of reef.^[4][9][3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com