righteous

Etymology

It continues inherited from Middle English rightwis and rightwos,^[2][3] inherited from Old English rihtwīs,^[4][5][6] a compound of riht (“right”) and wīs (“manner, way, state”).^[4][5][7] The OED treats the second part as the adjective wise or perhaps the noun meaning "manner" (compare -wise), and thinks the word may continue a Germanic compound also found in rechtwīs.^[8] In the early 16th century the ending was refashioned after adjectives such as bounteous, plenteous and courteous, which gave the modern form righteous.^[4][5][7][9] Johnson (1755) knew the older form and blamed the change on words being "corrupted by pronunciation".^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, acting rightly or justly, conforming to divine law and to accepted morality, and, of an action, morally right: both Old English, in the Vespasian Psalter and in Ælfric.^[8][4] The noun, righteous people, is also Old English.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense has been the core of the word since Old English, when it also served as a noun for the righteous as a class.^[8][6] In Scotland it had legal senses: of the boundaries of an estate, fixed by law (?1312 to 1746), and lawful or legitimate (from 1391), a sense now rare.^[8] From 1543 it could mean genuine or correct.^[8] A negative sense, marked by affected or hypocritical moral superiority, is found from 1809, in Washington Irving's History of New York.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as just, honest, virtuous.^[10] In 20th-century American slang, at first chiefly African American, righteous came to mean excellent or "cool" (1930, the title of a song by Blind Blake),^[8] a sense Etymonline dates to 1942 in jazz slang,^[4] and it also became an intensifier, "complete, utter" (1940), and an adverb, "properly, fully" (1948).^[8] In Worcestershire dialect it meant right, in proper condition, as of a person who felt unwell inside.^[11]

Timeline

• Old English – just, virtuous, conforming to divine law; as a noun, righteous people.^[8]
• ?1312 – (Scots law) of boundaries, fixed by law (obsolete).^[8]
• 1391 – (chiefly Scottish) lawful, legitimate.^[8]
• early 16th century – the spelling righteous replaces rightwise.^[4][5]
• 1543 – genuine, correct.^[8]
• 1809 – self-righteous, sanctimonious.^[8]
• 1930 – (US slang) excellent.^[8]
• 1940 – (US slang) utter, complete.^[8]
• 1948 – (US slang) as an adverb, properly, fully.^[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Morally right and just, especially in keeping with divine or moral law; virtuous, upright.
2. Morally justified, especially from the speaker's own point of view: a righteous fury at the waste.
3. Showing a smug or hypocritical sense of moral superiority; sanctimonious.
4. (US slang) Excellent, genuine or complete.

Noun

1. the righteous: righteous people as a class.

Word family

• righteously
• righteousness
• self-righteous
• unrighteous
• overrighteous

Related words

• right
• wise
• rightful
• upright

Usage notes

Etymonline quotes a 19th-century synonym note: upright draws its force from the image of standing straight, righteous appeals to the standards, motives and sanctions of religion, rightful applies to claims rather than conduct, and just suggests a written law that is itself right.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ 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)