rightwise

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English rightwise, rightwis, from Old English rihtwīs (“righteous, just; right, justifiable”), corresponding to right +‎ -wise. The second element was later confused with or assimilated to -ous, leading to the modern spelling righteous.

Adjective

rightwise (comparative more rightwise, superlative most rightwise)

1. Obsolete spelling of righteous [13th–16th c.]
   • 1534 November, Willyam Tindale [i.e., William Tyndale], transl., The Newe Testament […] (Tyndale Bible), Antwerp: […] Marten Emperowr, Mark ii:[17], folio xlviii, recto:

     I came not to call the rightwise, but the synners to repentaunce.

   • 1531, Thomas Elyot, “Of fraude and disceyte, whiche be agayne Justyce”, in Ernest Rhys, editor, The Boke Named the Governour […] (Everyman’s Library), London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent & Co; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co, published [1907], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 206:

     And Plato sayeth that it is extreme iniustice he to seme rightwise which in dede is uniuste.

   • 2006, Percy Grainger David Pear, Mark Carroll, edited by Malcolm Gillies, Self-portrait of Percy Grainger, page 167:

     Man feels maddened by his pent-uppness, & woman seems to understand that a rightwise man's cruel-fain-th is part of his hunger for women.

Verb

rightwise (third-person singular simple present rightwises, present participle rightwising, simple past and past participle rightwised)

1. (rare) Archaic spelling of righteous (“make righteous; justify religiously, absolve from sin”).
   • circa 1960-1977, Ernst Käsemann, page 377, quoted in 1977 in Paul and Palestinian Judaism →ISBN, page 528:

     God's righteousness is what it must be as the power which rightwises the sinner, namely, God's victory over against the rebellion of the world.

   • 1988, The history and theology of the New Testament writings (Udo Schnelle), page 121:

     […] God's righteousness is shown in the rightwising of sinners.

   • 2011-12, Christopher Vasillopulos, The Triumph of Hate: The Political Theology of the Hitler Movement →ISBN, page 74:

     In other words, God rightwises or reconciles humans to Him by infusing them with faith.

Etymology 2

Presumably from Old English rihtwīs, reinforced by reanalysis as right +‎ wise.

Adverb

rightwise (not comparable)

1. (rare) Rightly (correctly or justly); rightfully.
   • 1915, Howard Pyle, The story of King Arthur and his knights, page 36:

     And, after that fourth trial, sundry of the kings and many of the lesser barons and knights and all of the commons cried out that these were trials enough, and that Arthur had assuredly approved himself to be rightwise King […]

   • 1969, Topic, numbers 17-18, page 37:

     […] made indubitably clear that Arthur was rightwise king of the realm […]

   • 2003, Nancy McKenzie, Grail Prince, page 192:

     "That it was Maximus's sword which Merlin found for Arthur and fixed in the stone of Lludyn's Hill by magic arts so that none but he who was rightwise born King of all the Britons could pull it out."

Etymology 3

right +‎ -wise

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rītʹwīz, IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪtwaɪz/
• (US) enPR: rītʹwīz', IPA^(key): /ˈɹaɪtˌwaɪz/

Adverb

rightwise (not comparable)

1. (rare) By a rightward path; rightwards, rightwardly; clockwise (in a clockwise manner).
   • 1890, G. C. Macaulay, The History of Herodotus, translated into English:

     and doing so they say that they do it themselves rightwise and the Hellenes leftwise.

   • 2004, Christian P. Robert, George Casella, Monte Carlo statistical methods, page 336:

     Similarly, his "doubling procedure" consists in the same random starting interval […] whose length is doubled (leftwise or rightwise at random) recursively till both ends are outside the slice.

References

• “rightwise, adv.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• “rightwise, adv.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, third edition (June 2010)

Adjective

rightwise

1. (rare) Rightward (to or from the right side); on the right side.
   • 1866, Specifications and drawings of patents relating to electricity issued by the United States from July 1, 1884, to July 1, 1885, volume 39, published by the United States Patent Office:

     […] that, abutting against the end of H, or nearly so, it will lock said bar as against a return or rightwise motion, and then said bar will be locked as against a reverse motion, and, being locked, its flop D cannot be rotated back, […]

   • 2006, Arne Røkkum, Nature, ritual, and society in Japan's Ryukyu Islands, page 151:

     The leftwise action aims at what drifts out of the nunka domain of the nefarious. Similarly for mortuary arrangements, what is leftwise is more momentous than what is rightwise.

2. (rare) Clockwise, moving clockwise.
   • 1966, P. H. Pott, Yoga and yantra: their interrelation and their significance for Indian archeology, page 66:

     In Tibet the compass points are described in a rightwise circle; one speaks there of east-south and west-north instead of south-east and north-west.

   • 2006, Steve Lawhead, The Silver Hand, page 20:

     Then he stepped before me, and I bade him walk three times in a rightwise circle around me. "This is embarrassing," he growled through clenched teeth as he passed the first time.

Related terms

• rightways
• rightwiseness

See also

• leftwise

Middle English

Adjective

rightwise

1. upright, righteous
   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41:

     And I seide, “Ser, in his tyme maister Ioon Wiclef was holden of ful many men the grettis clerk that thei knewen lyuynge vpon erthe. And therwith he was named, as I gesse worthili, a passing reuli man and an innocent in al his lyuynge. And herfore grete men of kunnynge and other also drowen myche to him, and comownede ofte with him. And thei sauouriden so his loore that thei wroten it bisili and enforsiden hem to rulen hem theraftir… Maister Ion Aston taughte and wroot acordingli and ful bisili, where and whanne and to whom he myghte, and he vsid it himsilf, I gesse, right perfyghtli vnto his lyues eende. Also Filip of Repintoun whilis he was a chanoun of Leycetre, Nycol Herforde, dane Geffrey of Pikeringe, monke of Biland and a maistir dyuynyte, and Ioon Purueye, and manye other whiche weren holden rightwise men and prudent, taughten and wroten bisili this forseide lore of Wiclef, and conformeden hem therto. And with alle these men I was ofte homli and I comownede with hem long tyme and fele, and so bifore alle othir men I chees wilfulli to be enformed bi hem and of hem, and speciali of Wiclef himsilf, as of the moost vertuous and goodlich wise man that I herde of owhere either knew. And herfore of Wicleef speciali and of these men I toke the lore whiche I haue taughte and purpose to lyue aftir, if God wole, to my lyues ende.”

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Adverb

rightwise

1. rightly (correctly or justly)

Related terms

• rightwisen — to justify, vindicate
• rightwishede — rightwiseness
• rightwisli — rightwisely