ruth
/ɹuθ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.05 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
Archaic; Countable; Uncountable
noun
Matter for regret or sorrow; calamity, ruin; also, occasion for regret or sorrow; (countable) an instance of this; a disaster, a pitiful thing.
Obsolete; Uncountable
name
A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
name
A female given name from Hebrew.
name
A census-designated place in White Pine County, Nevada, United States.
Example Sentences
- "The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke [vengeance] for rewth? can murder like him beſt?"
- "It vvas my fortune to be at Rome, vpon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-vvay thief, vvas executed: at his ſtrangling no man of the company ſeemed to be mooved to any ruth; but vvhen he came to be quartered, the Executioner gave no blovve that vvas not accompanied vvith a pitteous voyce, and heartie exclamation, as if every man had had a feeling ſympathie, or lent his ſenſes to the poore mangled vvretch."
- "Look homevvard Angel novv, and melt vvith ruth. / And, O ye Dolphin, vvaft the haples youth."
- "[O]ft they ſnatch the Pen, / As if inſpir'd, and in a Theſpian Rage; / Then vvrite, and blot, as vvould your Ruth engage."
- "For if my deſultory ſtrain vvith ruth / And indignation make thine eyes o'erflovv, / Alas! vvhat comfort could thy anguiſh ſooth, / Shouldſt thou th'extent of human folly knovv."
- "And he, that Ancient Man, whose sight / Has long been quenched by age's night, / Upon whose wrinkled brow alone, / Nor ruth, nor mercy's trace is shown, […]"
Etymology
From Middle English ruthe, reuthe, reuþe, reowthe, rewthe (“compassion, pity, sympathy; mercy; grief, sorrow; cause or event of pity or sorrow; lamentation; calamity, trouble; distress; regret, remorse; cruelty, ill treatment”), from reu, reuen (“to feel compassion or pity; to regret, rue; etc.”) + -th, -the (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc.), possibly influenced by an early Scandinavian language (compare Old Norse hrygð, hryggð (“affliction, grief, sorrow, ruth”), from the Proto-Germanic word indicated below). Reuen is derived from Old English hrēowan (“to grieve; to regret, rue; to repent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwan (“to cause pain; to regret”), from Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną (“to cause regret, rue; to feel sorrow, grieve”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *krew(H)-, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (“blood”) and *krows- (“to fall, beat, break, bruise”). By surface analysis, rue (“to regret; etc.”) + -th (suffix forming abstract nouns from verbs).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹuθ/
- British English: /ɹuːθ/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in People.