Etymology

righteousness

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Today it means: The quality or state of being righteous. Full definition →

Middle English rightwisnes ← Old English rihtwīsnes
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromrihtwīsnes“justice”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromrightwisnes
  3. English todayrighteousness

Corruption of earlier rightwiseness, from Middle English rightwisnes, from Old English rihtwīsnes (“justice”). By surface analysis, righteous + -ness.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishrightwisnes all →

rightwiseness

Old Englishrihtwīsnes all →

rightwiseness

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.