rite

Forms

rite m (plural rites)^[1] Middle French rit; the spelling rite dates from 1676.^[2][3][4] Rit is still used in liturgy.^[5][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rītus (“rite, religious ceremony, usage, custom”).^[6][2][3][1] Rey explains the Latin noun as built on the root of armus (“upper arm, shoulder”) and of artus (“joints”), with the sense passing from “joint” to “division, order” and then to the order a religion requires, and notes that it is one of the religious words shared by Indo-Iranian and Italo-Celtic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as rit in Jean Bouteillier's Somme rural, of about 1395, in the general sense “usage, custom”, mostly in legal language.^[2][7][6] The TLFi cites the 1479 edition of the work.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “custom” went out of use, and the word was taken up again in the religious sense “ceremonial, worship” (1535), at times spelled rit (1669); that spelling lasted in religious use for the liturgy of a whole church, as in rit catholique.^[2][6][4] By metonymy it named a single ceremony or gesture prescribed by the liturgy (late 17th century, Bossuet) and the degree of solemnity of a feast, as in rite double and rite simple.^[2][5] In 1875 it was extended to the ceremonies of bodies organized like a church and, figuratively, to any fixed, unvarying practice, going back to the old sense of custom.^[2][7] Ethnology took it up for sacred or symbolic practices, notably in rites de passage (1909, Van Gennep) and rites d'initiation.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – Rit “usage, custom” in Bouteillier's Somme rural.^[2][3]
• 1535 – First used in the religious sense, in an account of the Holy Land.^[6][2]
• 1669 – The spelling rit for a church's liturgy.^[2][7]
• 1676 – The spelling rite appears.^[2][3][4]
• late 17th century – Bossuet uses it for a single prescribed ceremony.^[2][7]
• 1875 – Larousse records the figurative sense “fixed practice”.^[7][2]
• 1909 – Van Gennep's rites de passage.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The body of ceremonies and rules of worship of a religious community, a liturgy: le rite byzantin.^[5][8][7]
2. (Catholic liturgy) The degree of solemnity of a feast.^[5][2]
3. A ceremony or gesture prescribed by a religion, or by a secret society.^[5][8]
4. (anthropology) A practice of sacred or symbolic character: rites de passage, rites d'initiation.^[5][2]
5. (figurative) A fixed, unvarying practice, a habit or ritual: Le café du matin est devenu un rite.^[5][8]

Related words

• rituel
• Latin rītus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
7. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)