rito

Forms

rito m (plural ritos)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rītus (“custom; religious ceremony, rite”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that his earliest record, in Palencia (1490), gives the word with a string of synonyms, as if it were not yet well known; both Berceo and Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary lack it.^[2] The CDH has it some seventy years earlier, in Enrique de Villena.^[5]

The same Latin word was borrowed as Catalan ritu, first recorded in 1497,^[6] Portuguese rito, from the 16th century,^[7] and French rite, at first rit (c. 1395).^[8] Terreros gives the Italian equivalent rito.^[9]

De Vaan traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic *reitu- (“rite”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₂r-(e)i- (“to count, observe carefully”), the root of Ancient Greek ἀριθμός (arithmós, “number”) and Old High German rīm (“row, number”).^[10] Wiktionary gives the same root as *h₂rey-.^[1] De Vaan suggests that it may be the root *h₂er- (“to join, arrange”) with a suffix -i-, which would make the word a cognate of Latin artus (“limb”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Mosé Arragel's translation and gloss of the Bible (c. 1422–1433), spelt rricto and meaning “manner, method”: este tal rricto de glosar “this manner of glossing”.^[5] The first hit without a later copy is Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria (1423), already in the religious sense: cuando duró el gentélico rito en la jovial ley “while the pagan rite lasted under the law of Jove”.^[5] Corominas dates the word to Palencia in 1490, where it renders Latin sequela together with costumbre, uso and exemplo.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias defined rito as custom or ceremony and connected Latin ritus with ratus “approved, valid”, an etymology of his time.^[11] The Autoridades gave two senses, a custom or ceremony and the ceremony and rule set by the Church for the divine office, with quotations from Solís's history of New Spain.^[12][2] Terreros called it a term of theology, the manner of the Church's ceremonies (the Greek and the Latin rite), also used for any usage or custom.^[9] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 added the grades of the office, rito doble, semidoble and simple.^[13]

Today the word names a custom or ceremony and the body of rules for a religion's worship, and informally any act repeated in the same way every time, kept almost religiously.^[4][14][15] In Puerto Rico it also names the working system of a Masonic lodge.^[16]

Timeline

• 1423 – Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria speaks of the pagan rite of the Romans and Greeks.^[5]
• c. 1450 – the date Corominas gives in his short dictionary.^[3]
• 1490 – Palencia, the first record in the DCECH.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses ritus as custom.^[17]
• 1570 – Cristóbal de las Casas has rito in his Italian–Spanish dictionary.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as custom or ceremony.^[11]
• 1737 – first record of the derivative ritual in the BDELC.^[3]
• 1899 – the Academy records rito doble, semidoble and simple.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A custom or ceremony.^[4][1]
2. The set of rules for worship and religious ceremonies; a rite or liturgy: la misa según el rito bizantino.^[4][14][1]
3. (informal) Any act repeated in exactly the same way and kept as if it were sacred; a ritual.^[14][15]
4. (Puerto Rico, freemasonry) The working system of a Masonic lodge, as the York or the Scottish Rite.^[16]

Word family

• ritual
• ritualista
• ritualismo

Related words

• Latin rītus
• Catalan ritu
• French rite

Usage notes

In Chile rito is also a thick blanket or poncho of coarse thread, with the variant litro;^[18] Lenz derives it from Mapuche rùthù or rithù, given by Febrés.^[18][14] The Academy's dictionaries of the 19th century also list an obsolete adjective rito “valid, just, lawful”, which the edition of 1884 derives from Latin ratus and Moliner from írrito.^[19][20][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 35
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rito
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. rito
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 338
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2934
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rite
9. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 381
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1267
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 625
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 877
14. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rito
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. rito
16. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. rito
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. rito
18. ^ a b Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. rito
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 685
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 936