rite
Pronunciation
- /ɹaɪt/[1]
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
- A prescribed form of words and actions for a ceremony, especially a religious one.[11][13][3]
- A ceremonial act or series of acts: funeral rites.[11][13]
- The liturgy or body of observances of a church, especially one of the historical forms of the Eucharist: the Byzantine rite.[11][13][10]
- A Christian church distinguished by its liturgy.[13]
- A formal custom or social practice.[10][3]
- (obsolete, 1467–1875) The custom or practice of a people or country.[3][10]
- (obsolete, c. 1480–1567) A religion.[3][10]
Word family
- riteless
- ritelessness
- Latin rite
- rite of passage
Related words
References
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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)
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
- ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
- ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins