rigour

English

Alternative forms

• rigor (US)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] , from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French rigor, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin rigor (“stiffness, rigidity, rigor, cold, harshness”), from rigere (“to be rigid”). Compare French rigueur.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)
• Homophones: rigor, rigger

Noun

rigour (countable and uncountable, plural rigours)

1. Severity or strictness.
   • 1611, King James Version, Exodus 1:13–14:

     And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.

2. Harshness, as of climate.
3. A trembling or shivering response.
4. Character of being unyielding or inflexible.
5. Shrewd questioning.
6. Higher level of difficulty. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (British) Misspelling of rigor (“rigor mortis”).

Related terms

• rigid
• rigorous
• rigorousness

Translations

a harsh or severe experience

• Finnish: ankaruus (fi), tiukkuus (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: vigor m
• Romanian: severitate (ro) f, rigoare (ro) f

trembling or shivering response

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

character of being unyielding or inflexible

• Finnish: joustamattomuus
• French: rigueur (fr) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: rigurozitate (ro) f, fermitate (ro) f

an abbreviated form of rigor mortis

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

shrewd questioning

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

higher level of difficulty

• Finnish: vaikeus (fi)
• Portuguese: rigor (pt) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: asprime (ro) f, severitate (ro) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} rigueur (fr) f
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} rigore (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} rigor (sh) m

Further reading

• “rigour”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “rigour”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.