Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search



Etymology 1[edit]

Old High German rîtari, Middle High German rîter, rîtære. Not of Proto-Germanic age, but an OHG formation from the verb rītan "to ride" (Anglo-Saxon rîdere and Old Icelandic ríðari are loans from OHG).

Low German has riddere, with short vowel and geminate. Middle High German forms seem to have varied between long and short vowel, rîter vs. riter, giving rise to the separate word Ritter "knight". Lachmann (1827) noted that Middle High German poetry avoided use of the word in rhyming position, indicating that the two forms were used interchangeably.[1]


Reiter m ‎(genitive Reiters, plural Reiter)

Reiter (widget)
  1. rider (one who rides (a horse))
  2. mounted man-at-arms, cuirassier
  3. (computing) tab (navigational widget in a GUI)
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Old High German rîtera, attested as glossing cribrum; cognate with Anglo-Saxon hridder (English riddle ‎(sieve)), from the same root *krey- as cribrum, κρίμνον ‎(krímnon) (κρίνω ‎(krínō)). Early New High German forms reyter, raiter, reuter.


Reiter f ‎(genitive Reiter, plural Reiter)

  1. (archaic) winnowing sieve

Proper noun[edit]

Reiter m, f ‎(genitive Reiters)

  1. A surname​.

External links[edit]


  1. ^ Georg Friedrich Benecke und Karl Lachmann, Iwein. Hartmann von Aue (1827).