rue
/ɹu/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.56 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
Transitive verb
verb
To feel compassion or pity; to take pity (on), to have compassion (on).
Archaic; Intransitive verb; Obsolete
noun
Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, / "The heart out of the bosom was never given in vain; / 'Tis paid with sighs aplenty and sold for endless rue." / And I am two-and-twenty, and oh, 'tis true, 'tis true."
- "to rue the day"
- "I rued the day I crossed paths with her."
- "I wept to see, and rued it from my heart."
- "Thy will chose freely what it now so justly rues."
- "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."
Etymology
From Middle English rewe, reowe, from Old English hrēow (“sorrow, regret, penitence, repentance, penance”), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwu (“pain, sadness, regret, repentance”). Cognates include German reuen (“to regret, to repent”) and Dutch rouwen (“to mourn, to grieve”). Probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krows-. If so, note the same sense evolution with in this case cognate Russian круши́ть (krušítʹ, “to destroy, to shatter”), Russian сокруша́ться (sokrušátʹsja, “to be distressed, to grieve (for, over)”). Also compare Czech truchlit from Proto-Slavic *truxlъ.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹu/
- British English: /ɹuː/