Rich

To see the German root Rich- is to see the ghost of an English word we’ve mostly forgotten: to reckon. When you reckon the cost of something, you are calculating, judging, and setting things in order. That same instinct for setting things straight animates a whole family of German words. A Richter is a judge, one who sets legal matters straight. Their judgment is a Richterspruch, a "judge's-saying," and they preside over a Gericht, a court. But this idea of setting straight is not confined to the courtroom. It expands into the abstract, describing the very direction of our lives and thoughts. The Grundausrichtung of a policy is its fundamental direction, the line it follows. A Richtungswechsel is a change of that direction. Even the news, a Nachricht, carries this sense; it's an account that "sets you straight" on what has happened. And when you act in a way that is folgerichtig, you are being logical, literally "follow-straight." You are following a straight line of reasoning, reckoning cause and effect in a way that simply makes sense.