rytas

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *rīˀtás, likely continuing Proto-Indo-European *h₃riH- (“flowth, raise”) + *-tós. From the same root, but via different extensions, descend Proto-Slavic *rěka (“river”), Latin rīvus (“river”), Proto-Germanic *rīsaną (“to rise”). The meaning probably went from “to flow, to pass” to “morning” through the idea of the time when the day starts to flow, to pass (or maybe the idea of the sun rising up at daybreak). Cognates include Latvian rīts, Old Church Slavonic ристати (ristati, “to move hastly back-and-forth”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈɾʲiːtɐs]

rýtas m (plural rytai̇̃) stress pattern 3

1. morning

• riedė́ti (“to roll”)
• ráimas, ráinas (“streaked”)
• ráivas (“gray, motley”), ráibas (“variegarted, speckled”)

• “rytas”, in Lietuvių kalbos žodynas [Dictionary of the Lithuanian language], lkz.lt, 1941–2025
• “rytas”, in Lietuvių kalbos etimologinio žodyno duomenų bazė [Lithuanian etymological dictionary database], 2007–2012