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rue¹

(r)

v. rued, ru·ing, rues

v. tr.

To feel regret, remorse, or sorrow for: “I never rued a day in my life like the one I rued when I left that old mother of mine” (Flannery O'Connor).

v. intr.

To feel regret, remorse, or sorrow.

Sorrow; regret: “I ... won her from various rivals, who ... went away, one may say, full of rue” (Brian Doyle).

[Middle English rewen, partly from Old English hrēowan, to distress, vex, and partly from hrēowian, to repent; akin to Dutch rouwen, to mourn, and Old Norse hrjá, to afflict, all from Germanic *hrewan, to be sad, make sad, of unknown origin.]

ruer n.

rue²

(r)

1. Any of various aromatic woody herbs or shrubs of the genus Ruta of the Mediterranean region and western Asia, especially the ornamental R. graveolens, having bipinnately compound leaves that yield an acrid volatile oil formerly used in medicine.

2. Any of various other plants having similar foliage, such as meadow rue.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rūta, either from Greek rhūtē (probably of Mediterranean substrate origin) or from the same substrate source as Greek rhūtē.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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