The story
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*rehtanassī“rightness, justice”
- Old English · inherited fromrihtnes
- Middle English · inherited fromrightnesse
- English todayrightness
From Middle English rightnesse, riȝtnesse, rihtnesse, from Old English rihtnes, rehtnis, from Proto-West Germanic *rehtanassī (“rightness, justice”), equivalent to right + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian rjochtens (“rightness”), Middle Dutch rechtenesse (“rightness, justification”), Old High German rehtnissa (“justice”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.