rue

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "rue"

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ɹuː/, /ɹɪu̯/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uː
  • Homophones: roo, roux

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English rewe, reowe, from Old English hrēow (“sorrow, regret, penitence, repentance, penance”), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwu (“pain, sadness, regret, repentance”). Compare German reuen (“to regret, to repent”) and Dutch berouwen (“to regret, to repent”).

Noun[edit]

rue (uncountable)

  2. (archaic or dialectal) Sorrow; repentance; regret.
  3. (archaic or dialectal) Pity; compassion.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English rewen, ruwen, ruen, reowen, from Old English hrēowan (“to rue; make sorry; grieve”), perhaps influenced by Old Norse hryggja (“to distress, grieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną (“to sadden; repent”).

Verb[edit]

rue (third-person singular simple present rues, present participle ruing or rueing, simple past and past participle rued)

  2. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
  3. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
  4. (transitive) To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
    I rued the day I crossed paths with her.
    • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
      I wept to see, and rued it from my heart.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 4:
      Thy will chose freely what it now so justly rues.
    • 2009, David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race:
      And feminization of the homeland is something to be rued, while the feminized humiliation of the enemy for the sake of the fatherland is cause for commendation and celebration.
    • 2009, Erica James, It's The Little Things:
      As far as they were concerned, he must be ruing the day he ever met Sally.
    • 2012, Joy Fielding, Still Life:
      And was the fact she was no longer losing large chunks of time something to be celebrated or something to be rued?
    • 2014, Gary Meehan, True Fire:
      “If we get in a fight, you'll be ruing your lack of training.”
    • 2017, Lorde (lyrics and music), “Writer in the Dark”:
      Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark
  5. (archaic, intransitive) To feel compassion or pity.
    • Late 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
      Madame, reweth upon my peynes smerte
    • 1842, Nicholas Ridley, The Life of Nicholas Ridley
      which stirred men's hearts to rue upon them
  6. (archaic, intransitive) To feel sorrow or regret.
Usage notes[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

Rue (plant)

From Middle English rue, from Anglo-Norman ruwe, Old French rue, from Latin rūta, from Ancient Greek ῥυτή (rhutḗ).

Noun[edit]

rue (plural rues)

  1. Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      But th'aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre, / Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre / Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill [...].
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
      Ophelia:
      There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference.
    • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 253:
      The life of one plant would be affected by another. Rue was definitely hostile to basil, rosemary to hyssop, but coriander, dill and chervil lived on the friendliest of terms[.]
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Chuukese[edit]

Numeral[edit]

rue

  1. twenty

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Inherited from Old French rue, developed figuratively from Latin rūga (“wrinkle”).

Noun[edit]

La Rue de la Rue (Suèvres, Centre-Val de Loire, France)

rue f (plural rues)

  1. street, road
Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Inherited from Old French rue, rude, from Latin rūta, from Ancient Greek ῥυτή (rhutḗ).

Noun[edit]

rue f (plural rues)

  1. rue (the plant)

Etymology 3[edit]

From ruer.

Verb[edit]

rue

  1. inflection of ruer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading[edit]

Galician[edit]

Verb[edit]

rue

  1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of ruar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Kabuverdianu[edit]

Verb[edit]

rue

  1. gossip

References[edit]

  • Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

rue

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of ruō

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman rue, from Latin rūta, from Ancient Greek ῥυτή (rhutḗ).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

rue

  1. A kind of plant belonging to the genus Ruta; rue.
  2. (rare) meadow-rue (plants in the genus Thalictrum)

Descendants[edit]

  • English: rue
  • Scots: rew

References[edit]

Norman[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French rue, developed figuratively from Latin ruga (“wrinkle”).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Audio (Jersey)(file)

Noun[edit]

rue f (plural rues)

  1. (Jersey, Guernsey) road, street
    • 1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore‎[1], page 520:
      I' n'y a pas de rue sàns but.
      There is no road but has an ending.

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Compare Swedish ruva

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

rue f (definite singular rua, indefinite plural ruer, definite plural ruene)

  1. a pile, heap
  2. a lump of manure, particularly from a cow

Synonyms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Old French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin rūta, from Ancient Greek ῥυτή (rhutḗ).

Noun[edit]

rue oblique singular, f (oblique plural rues, nominative singular rue, nominative plural rues)

  1. rue (plant)

Descendants[edit]

Descendants of rue in other languages

References[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

rue

  1. inflection of ruar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Venetian[edit]

Noun[edit]

rue

  1. plural of rua
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