rigor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rigour,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French rigor, also rigour,^[3][2][5] and directly borrowed from Latin rigor (“numbness, stiffness, hardness”),^[3][2][6] from rigeō (“to be stiff”),^[5][4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *reig- (“to stretch, be stiff”).^[5][4] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from about 1270, meaning rigour or strictness.^[7] Merriam-Webster gives the French source as Middle French rigueur,^[8] the modern French form.^[5][6] It is related to rigid.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Harshness, severity in dealing with people: about 1386 in the 1989 edition of the OED,^[9] and about 1395 in Chaucer's Franklin's Tale in the MED and Barnhart.^[2][3] Barnhart records the sense "stiffness, numbness" in 1392.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant physical stiffness or numbness,^[3][5] and medieval medicine used it from about 1400 for numbness or stiffness and then for a sudden chill with shivering.^[5][10] In English the figurative sense of harshness came first and branched out:^[9][5] the strict application of a law from 1427, with the rigour of the law from 1479,^[9] strictness of discipline or austerity of life from about 1440,^[9][5] severe weather or extreme cold from before 1548,^[9] and hardship in general from 1769.^[9] Johnson (1755) listed "cold; stiffness" and "a convulsive shuddering with sense of cold" under rigour.^[11] Rigor alone was short for rigor mortis from 1846;^[10] Barnhart dates the Latin phrase to 1839–47.^[3] Merriam-Webster also gives the sense of strict precision, as in logical rigor.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – severity, harshness in dealing with people.^[9] The MED's first quotation is from Chaucer, about 1395.^[2]
• 1392 – stiffness, numbness.^[3]
• before 1400 – in medicine, numbness or stiffness, later a chill with shivering.^[10]
• 1427 – the strict application of a law.^[9]
• c. 1440 – strictness of discipline, austerity of life.^[9]
• before 1548 – severity of weather, extreme cold.^[9]
• 1769 – extreme distress or hardship.^[9]
• 1846 – short for rigor mortis.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Harsh inflexibility or severity in judgment or conduct; strictness: the rigor of army discipline.^[12][4][13]
2. A condition that makes life hard, especially extreme cold; a hardship: the rigors of an Arctic winter.^[12][4][13]
3. Strict precision or exactness, as in reasoning: The proof lacks mathematical rigor.^[12][13]
4. (medicine) A sudden feeling of chill with shivering, often at the onset of a fever.^[13][12][14]
5. Stiffness of muscles or tissues; rigor mortis.^[12][10][13]
6. A harsh or cruel act.^[12][4]

Word family

• rigorism
• rigorous

Related words

• rigid
• rigor mortis

Usage notes

Rigour is the usual British spelling and rigor the American one.^{[5][13][8][15]} In British English rigor is kept for the medical senses, often pronounced /ˈrʌɪɡɔː/, apparently from the doctors' pronunciation of the Latin word.^[10][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House