rite

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rite, also rit,^[2] borrowed from Latin rītus (“religious observance, ceremony; custom, usage”).^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} Hoad and the Shorter Oxford also allow Old French rit, later French rite, as a source;^[9][10] the OED dates rit from 1479.^[3] The Latin word is also the source of Italian rito and Spanish rito.^[4][3] It is related to Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós, “number”) and Old English rīm (“number”),^[8][7][11] and so to arithmetic and rhyme.^[8][7] Etymonline derives it, perhaps, from Proto-Indo-European *re- (“to reason, count”),^[4] while the AHD places it under Proto-Indo-European *ar- (“to fit together”).^[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A prescribed act or observance in a religious or other solemn ceremony: about 1350, in the poems of William of Shoreham (composed before 1333).^[3][2] Barnhart dates it to before 1333,^[7] Etymonline to the early 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English rite could be confused with right.^[2][3] From 1467 it also meant the custom or practice of a people or country, and then any custom or practice,^[3][10] and for a time it meant a religion itself (about 1480 to 1567).^[3][10] From 1538 it named the prescribed form of service of a church.^[3] In American journalism rites became an official ceremony (1929).^[3] The phrase rite of passage (1909) translates French rite de passage, coined by the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep.^[4][10] Johnson (1755) defined rite as a "solemn act of religion; external observance".^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1350 – a religious or solemn ceremony.^[3]
• 1467 – the custom of a people or country (obsolete by 1875).^[3]
• c. 1480 – a religion (obsolete by 1567).^[3]
• before 1538 – the prescribed form of service of a church.^[3]
• 1909 – rite of passage.^[4]
• 1929 – US journalism, rites, an official ceremony.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prescribed form of words and actions for a ceremony, especially a religious one.^[11][13][3]
2. A ceremonial act or series of acts: funeral rites.^[11][13]
3. The liturgy or body of observances of a church, especially one of the historical forms of the Eucharist: the Byzantine rite.^[11][13][10]
4. A Christian church distinguished by its liturgy.^[13]
5. A formal custom or social practice.^[10][3]
6. (obsolete, 1467–1875) The custom or practice of a people or country.^[3][10]
7. (obsolete, c. 1480–1567) A religion.^[3][10]

Word family

• riteless
• ritelessness
• Latin rite
• rite of passage

Related words

• ritual
• arithmetic
• rhyme
• right
• write
• wright

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins