righteousness

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rightwisnesse,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English rihtwīsnes (“justice, righteousness”),^[2][4][5][6] formed from Old English rihtwīs + -nes,^[4] from riht (“right”) and wīs (“way, manner”).^[2] Its present shape follows righteous, an alteration of the older rightwise in which the ending was remade after words such as courteous;^[2][4] the OED therefore treats it as formed from righteous with the suffix -ness.^[7][8] Etymonline dates the altered form to the early 15th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Being righteous or just; keeping the law of God and accepted morals; uprightness: early Old English, in the Vespasian Psalter.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Old English already used the word for righteousness personified (usually with a capital) and, in the plural, for righteous acts.^[7] It also meant rightness or aptness, until 1481, and wisdom,^[7] and in Middle English it could mean truth, until about 1500;^[7] Chaucer used rightwisnesse thirteen times and Gower twenty-four, for righteousness and justice.^[3] Tyndale (1526) still wrote "Blessed are they which honger and thurst for rightewesnes", where the King James Bible has righteousness.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "justice; honesty; virtue; goodness".^[9] The OED notes that 19th-century writers who used the old form rightwiseness did so knowing the etymology.^[7]

Timeline

• early Old English – uprightness; also personified, and righteous acts.^[7]
• Old English to 1481 – correctness, rightness (obsolete).^[7]
• before 1225 – truth (obsolete by 1500).^[7]
• early 15th century – the altered form righteousness.^[2]
• 1526 – rightewesnes, in Tyndale's New Testament.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being righteous; moral uprightness, keeping to divine or moral law: She spoke with the confidence of her own righteousness.^[4][7][8]
2. (rare) A righteous act.^[7][8]

Related words

• righteous
• right
• wise
• self-righteousness
• unrighteousness

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.