## Etymology
From Old French rectitude, from Late Latin rectitudo ('straightness, uprightness'), from Latin rectus ('straight, right'), past participle of regere ('to keep straight, direct').

## AI Etymology
Rectitude comes from Old French rectitude, from Late Latin rectitudo ('straightness, uprightness'), from Latin rectus ('straight, right'), past participle of regere ('to keep straight, direct'). The historical chain includes Latin rectitudo, Latin rectus, and Latin regere. The quoted older senses, "straightness, uprightness", "straight, right", and "to keep straight, direct", supply the semantic anchors for rectitude. The formation is best read as participial and borrowed: the word rectitude carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "moral uprightness; righteousness". English derivatives include rectitudinous; related English forms include rectify, rector, rectangle, and direct. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- Ethics & Social Judgment

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