Rightwisnes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of the quality of moral uprightness, being just and acting in accordance with what is right before God or people
2. An older form of the virtue of being upright, just, and faithful to what is morally right in conduct and belief
3. Obsolete spelling denoting the state of living justly and doing what is right, as measured by a moral or divine standard

Etymology: "Rightwisnes" is an Old English compound, not a later coinage: it joins "riht" (right, straight, just) with the suffix "-wisnes," a noun-forming ending that means something like "state or quality of," as in "goodness" or "wilderness." The model is "rihtwisnes," the Old English equivalent of "righteousness," and the variant spellings show how English spelling drifted over the centuries. The Old English "wis" element is related to the verb "wisan," meaning "to direct, guide," so the underlying picture is of something kept straight or guided along a true line. The word survives in English mainly as a spelling variant of "righteousness," which entered the language in Old English and was used heavily in Middle English religious writing, including Bible translations. Forms like "rightwisnes" are attested in Middle English manuscripts, where scribes wrote the word phonetically, sometimes in several ways within the same text.