rīts

From the same stem as the verb ritēt (“to roll; to flow; to go by”): Proto-Baltic *rīt-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- (“to flow”) with an extra -t (from the same stem, with an extra -s instead, Old English risan, English rise; from the meaning “to flow,” Latin rīvus “river”). The meaning probably went from “to flow, to pass” to “morning” via the idea of the time when the day starts to flow, to pass (or maybe the idea of the sun beginning to pass, to go by, to “flow”, on the sky). Cognates include Lithuanian rýtas.^[1]

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rīts m (1st declension)

1. morning (time of day, roughly around sunrise; also, the time period from sunrise to noon)

   rīta debesis ― morning sky

   tumšs rīts ― dark morning

   agrs rīts ― early morning

   rīta krēsla ― morning twilight

   rīta rasa ― morning dew

   rīta cēliens ― morning period, time

   rīta zvaigzne ― morning star (= Venus)

   no rīta līdz vakaram ― from morning till night

   uz rīta pusi ― (going) toward morning

   rīta putns ― morning bird (= a person who wakes up early)

   rīta tualete ― morning washing (i.e., the act washing and brushing one's teeth in the morning)

   silts, mīlīgs rīts ausa augusta sākumā... saule vēl nebija lēkusi, jo gaismiņa tikko sāka svīst ― a warm, gentle morning dawned in early August... the sun had not yet risen, because the (early) light had just begun to appear

   tonakt man slikti nāca miegs... aizmigu tikai pret rīta pusi ― that night I had trouble sleeping... I fell asleep only (when it was going) towards morning

2. (in the genitive, used adjectivally) morning

   rīta kurpes, rītakurpes ― slippers (lit. morning shoes)

   rīta svārki, rītasvārki ― gown, bathrobe (lit. morning coat)

   Edīte izraušas no gultas un apvilka rīta svārkus ― Edīte scrambled out of bed and put on her dressing gown

3. (figuratively) morning, dawn (the beginning or early phase of something)

   dzīves rīts ― the morning (= first phase) of life

   jaunība ir dzīves rīts; tas ir laiks, kad cilvēks veidojas kā personība ― youth is the morning of life; that is the time when someone forms him/herself as a person

Rīt is an adverb, meaning “tomorrow,” whereas rītdiena is a noun, meaning “(the day of) tomorrow.” Rīts, on the other hand, is a noun, meaning “morning.” The corresponding locative rītā can mean both “in the morning” (more frequently: no rīta) and “tomorrow” (more frequently: rīt).

• labrīt, labrīts
• no rīta
• rīt, rītā, rītdiena, parīt, parīts, parītdiena, aizparīt
• rītausma

• Times of day (diennakts daļas):
  ausma/rītausma - rīts - priekšpusdiena - pusdiena - pēcpusdiena - vakars - krēsla - nakts - pusnakts