rith

See also: rið and riþ

English

Alternative forms

• ride, rithe, rythe, rife, reeth

Etymology

From Middle English rīth (“a small stream”), rithe, from Old English rīþ m (“a small stream”), rīþe f, from Proto-West Germanic *rīþ, from Proto-Germanic *rīþaz, *rīþǭ (“stream, beck, brook”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to arise, arise”).

Cognate with Old Frisian rīth, rīd (“stream, beck”), Old Saxon rīth (“stream, torrent”) (> Middle Low German rîde), Old Dutch rīth (“stream, beck”), German -reide (“stream”, in placenames).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɹaɪθ/; (UK dialects) /ɹiːθ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːθ

Noun

rith (plural riths)

1. (obsolete) A small stream or channel.

   They waded further up the rith.

   • 1973 (quoting an earlier record), The Land Drainage Records of West Sussex: A Catalogue (West Sussex Record Office, David J. Butler), page xix:

     […] does not Cleanse part of two Riths or Sewers and repair so much of Pagham Wall against the Sea as doth belong to him to cleanse and to repair and the said Edward Woods to have notice to appear before us on the twenty Seventh day of this Instant December to give […]

   • 1968 (quoting an earlier record), Irish University Press Series of British Parliamentary [Records], page 472:

     […] Riths or Channels in the Harbour, as proposed in the Evidence of Charles Mant, Esquire, and alluded to in the Petition from Langstone, Your Committee are of opinion may be beneficially adopted and introduced in any Bill hereafter to […]

Usage notes

Now mostly found in surnames and place names like Hendrith and Tingrith.

Synonyms

• (small (usually fordable) stream): brooklet, bourn, freshet, gill, rill, rindle, rivulet, runlet, runnel, streamlet
• (small water course): beck, burn, crick, fresh, race, run

Further reading

• The Middle English Dictionary

Anagrams

• thir