Rue
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ruË/
- Rhymes: -uË
Origin 1
From Middle English rewe, reowe, from Old English hrēow ("sorrow, regret, penitence, repentance, penance"), from Proto-Germanic *hrewwŠ("pain, sadness, regret, repentance"), from Proto-Indo-European *krew-, *krow-, *krows- ("to push, fall, beat, break"). Cognate with Scots rew ("rue"), West Frisian rouw ("sadness"), Dutch rouw ("mourning, sadness"), German Reue ("repentance, regret, remorse, contrition"), Lithuanian krùšti ("to smash, crash, bruise"), Russian крушить (krushitʹ, "to destroy").
Full definition of rue
Noun
rue
(uncountable)- (archaic or dialectal) Sorrow; repentance; regret.
- (archaic or dialectal) Pity; compassion.
Origin 2
Old English hrēowan, perhaps influenced by Old Norse hryggja ("to distress, grieve")
Online Etymology Dictionary|rue
, from Germanic. Cognate with Dutch rouwen, German reuen.
Verb
- (obsolete, transitive) To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
- (obsolete, transitive) To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
- (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.
- unknown date ChapmanI wept to see, and rued it from my heart.
- unknown date MiltonThy will chose freely what it now so justly rues.
- (archaic, intransitive) To feel compassion or pity.
- Late 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury TalesMadame, reweth upon my peynes smerte
- unknown date Ridleywhich stirred men's hearts to rue upon them
- (archaic, intransitive) To feel sorrow or regret.
- unknown date TennysonOld year, we'll dearly rue for you.
Usage notes
Most frequently used in the collocation “rue the dayâ€.
Origin 3
From Anglo-Norman ruwe, Old French rue (>
modern French rue), from Latin rūta, from Ancient Greek ῥυτή. Compare rude.
Noun
rue
(plural rues)- Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb , formerly used in medicines.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.2:But th'aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre,
Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre
Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill .... - c. 1600, William Shakespeare, , , 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.