Meanings
comparative more rachitic · superlative most rachitic
- medicineOf or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets (“a disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones”).First known use 18th c.
Nor was there time to do much more than distribute some sweet to the pallid rachitic children.
1982, Lawrence Durrell, “Constance, or Solitary Practices”, in The Avignon Quintet, London: Faber & Faber, published 2004, →ISBN, page 7612 more examples
His companions—now I could see them as well. […] Tiny, nocturnal, twittering, they were like rachitic children, and as one went past me I saw mongoloid features and a bald head.
1989, Umberto Eco, chapter 113, in William Weaver, transl., Foucault’s Pendulum (A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book), San Diego, Calif.; New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, page 582They [the author's grandparents] brought Margot, who was a little more than a year old, back to Cataca with them, […] It was hard for me to get used to the change, because Margot came to the house like a creature from another life, rachitic and wild, and with an impenetrable interior world. When Abigaíl—the mother of Luis Carmelo Correa—saw her she could not understand why my grandparents had assumed the burden of that commitment. "The girl is dying," she said.
2003, Gabriel García Márquez, chapter 2, in Edith Grossman, transl., Living to Tell the Tale […], New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 80Synonyms: rickety
- figurativelyIn a precarious or weak condition; likely to break down or collapse; feeble, rickety.First known use 19th c.
Even as he thought this he saw, leaping from the last stair of a rachitic escalator, down there, a blond girl in a blue dress, bright in the brown darkness.
1981 August, John Crowley, “The Fairies’ Parliament”, in Little, Big, rack-size edition, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published October 1983, →ISBN, page 5763 more examples
On Dec. 2, we found ourselves rolling in the roads of pestilential Lagos, our lullaby the sullen distant roar, whilst a dusky white gleam smoking over the deadly bar in the darkening horizon threatened us with a disagreeable landing at the last, the youngest, and the most rachitic of Great Britain's large but now exceedingly neglected family of colonies.
1864, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “I Do Not Become ‘Fast Friends’ with Lagos”, in A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 25Gumbril Senior occupied a tall, narrow-shouldered and rachitic house in a little obscure square not far from Paddington. […] It was a prematurely old and decaying house in a decaying quarter.
1923 November, Aldous Huxley, chapter II, in Antic Hay, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 17More important, if the daring financial gamble is won, it may encourage other European nations with overvalued, rachitic currencies, notably France and Greece, to push through their own tough financial programs.
1947 December 8, “Foreign Exchange: Bold Gamble”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2021
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveOf or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets (“a disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones”).
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Pre-Greek
- Ancient Greekῥάχῐς“lower part of the back; (anatomy) backbone, spine”
- Koine Greekῥαχῖτις
- New Latinrachitis
- Englishrachitic
From rachitis (“rickets”) + -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’), possibly modelled after French rachitique or Late Latin rachiticus. Rachitis is an unadapted borrowing from New Latin rachitis, used by the British physician Francis Glisson (1597–1677) to refer to rickets, from Koine Greek ῥαχῖτις (rhakhîtis) (in ῥαχῖτις νόσος (rhakhîtis nósos, “spinal inflammation”, literally “spinal disease”)), the feminine form of ῥαχίτης (rhakhítēs, “in or of the spine, spinal”), from Ancient Greek ῥάχῐς (rhákhĭs, “lower part of the back; (anatomy) backbone, spine”) (probably ultimately Pre-Greek) + -ῖτις (-îtis) (feminine form of -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs, suffix forming nouns with the sense ‘one connected to’)). By surface analysis, rach- + -itic.
More words from New Latin, Koine Greek, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian рахитичен
- рахитичен (rahitičen)of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Catalan raquític
- raquíticof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Czech rachitický
- rachitickýof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Finnish riisitautinen
- riisitautinenof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
French rachitique
- rachitiqueof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
German rachitisch
- rachitischof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Hindi क्षीण
- क्षीण (kṣīṇ)of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Hungarian angolkóros
- angolkórosof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Italian rachitico
- rachiticoof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Portuguese raquítico
- raquíticoof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Spanish raquítico
- raquíticoof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Swedish rakitisk
- rakitiskof or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with rachitic
Anagrams
Cite this entry
rachitic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rachitic
“rachitic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rachitic. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rachitic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rachitic.
Source: rachitic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.