RECTITUDE

[Dr. Goodword]

• rectitude •

Pronunciation: rek-ti-tyud • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. Righteousness, uprightness, moral integrity. 2. Straightness.

Notes: Today's Good Word comes with an adjective, rectitudinous, with an extra particle, -in, buffering the suffix from the stem (see Word History). This automatically allows for an adverb rectitudinously. I am also comfortable with rectitudinal, though most dictionary compilers seem to ignore it. Someone who adheres to the highest standards of rectitude may be called a rectitudinarian, though be careful with this word: rectitudinarians may take offense at it.

In Play: We often forget that rectitude primarily refers to physical straightness: "The flowers in Dewey Rose's garden were aligned with a perfect rectitude no surveyor could surpass." Today we tend to use this word more in reference to walking the straight (rectitudinous) and narrow: "Miss Deeds was considered a woman of absolute rectitude until she was discovered in the cloakroom with Phil Anders during lunch period."

Word History: The Middle French word rectitude "straightness" descended through the ages directly from Latin rectitudo, rectitudin- "straightness, uprightness". This noun was derived from the adjective rectus "straight", a combination of the root reg- "make straight" plus the suffix -tus. We see the same root in words like erect, correct and even insurrection, despite the fact that the rectitude of insurgents is often questionable. The root reg- also went into the making rex, regis "king", source of English regal, and regula "straight rod", which French smoothed down to rule. (Did you ever wonder why ruler means "straight rule" and "king"?) The Germanic languages also inherited the stem reg-t-. It ended up in German as richten "to judge, to straighten" and to English as right. (Lest we put our own rectitude in question, we must now thank Joyce Rhode for suggesting today's righteously Good Word.)

[LukeJavan8]

For fear of getting into politics, just using the word
as explained: moral rectitude seems not to be a qualification
for political office in our nation's capital. With the
"tell all" books, the righteouness of it all is down a few degrees.

[saparris]

...moral rectitude...

I suppose that, when referring to someone's character, we hear the term "moral rectitude" far more than "rectitude," which lead me to a question:

Why do we add modifiers like "moral" to words in which the implication is there already (i.e. "man of rectitude is moral by definition)?

Just curious. Could be a number of reasons.

[LukeJavan8]

Political Correctness?
Fear of making a judgment call?

[saparris]

Clarification for words that are used in various contexts?

Having forgotten the meaning of the original word (as in jet black), since jet means black?

[LukeJavan8]

Perhaps, but I never really, myself, understood the
"jet' in jet black. I've never seen "jet" any other way
in regards to color. Are there different shades/hues
of Black? To me black is black, tho' there are other
words uses, e.g., ebony.

[LukeJavan8]

Colors, however, have nothing to do with "rectitude",
we'll get our hands slapped for straying off the subject.
The Agora Cops are everywhere.

[Slava]

Why do we add modifiers like "moral" to words in which the implication is there already (i.e. "man of rectitude is moral by definition)?

Just curious. Could be a number of reasons.

In this instance, I'd say that there are two reasons at play here.

1 - The definition does contain the concept of physical rectitude, so perhaps moral is added to make it plainly obvious we are not talking about someone's perfect posture.

2 - As with the color question, we add the extra bits (moral to rectitude, jet to black, teeny to tiny, etc.) as intensifiers.

[Dr. Goodword]

Jet is an extremely black form of coal capable of accepting a high polish. It was once used for making buttons, toys, and jewelry--and probably still is in some parts of the world.

[Slava]

Jet is an extremely black form of coal capable of accepting a high polish. It was once used for making buttons, toys, and jewelry--and probably still is in some parts of the world.

So, I gather this means the jet is not an intensifier, rather it is an adjectival use of the noun. Originally, the phrase may have been "black as jet," getting switched around over time.

Anyone care to chime in on the morality of rectitude?

[saparris]

My guess is that, in the case of rectitude, the word has gone out of fashion to the point that most speakers of English are familiar only with “moral rectitude” and don’t see the term as redundant. After all, how many people do you know who plan their gardens with rectitude in mind?

[Slava]

We could have fiscal/fiduciary rectitude without moral rectitude.

[saparris]

We could have fiscal/fiduciary rectitude without moral rectitude.

We can, but we typically have fiscal and fiduciary responsibility, which is my point. We just don't use rectitude except when referring to ethics and morals.

[LukeJavan8]

True: I've never heard it in any other way that I can
recall.

[Dr. Goodword]

I just dropped off a blog entry on jet black and pitch black at http://www.alphadictionary.com/blog/?p=397.