Ryghte

Part of speech: adjective, adverb, noun

Definitions

1. Morally good, just, or proper in conduct ; a claim or power one is owed by law or custom ; running in a straight line without bend ; to restore something to its proper condition
2. Being fair, true, or appropriate by moral standards ; a legitimate claim or privilege belonging to someone ; going directly, without deviation or curve ; to make a wrong thing accurate again
3. Conforming to what is just or accurate ; something one is entitled to possess or receive ; direct, unbent, and without a turn ; to rectify or put in order again

Etymology: Middle English "ryght" (also spelled "righte") is the ancestor of modern "right," and its spelling was a scribal habit as much as a sound. Old English had "riht," meaning straight, correct, or just, and the word carried the sense of something that conforms to a rule or a line. In the Middle Ages, scribes often added a final "e" to words, and "ryghte" with its extra "gh" reflects that spelling tradition, as well as Middle English spelling conventions borrowed from Old French scribes. The "gh" was not pronounced as a separate sound; it signaled the vowel was long and that the "ght" cluster was a fixed part of the spelling. By the early modern period, the final "e" had dropped out of speech, and printers standardized the form to "right" in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The "ryghte" spelling you see here is therefore an earlier Middle English form of the same word, not a separate term.