ruth

See also: Ruth

English

Etymology

From Middle English reuþe, ruthe, reuthe, rewthe, reowthe, corresponding to rue +‎ -th, perhaps after early Scandinavian (compare Old Norse hrygð, hryggð (“ruth, sorrow”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹuːθ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːθ

Noun

ruth (countable and uncountable, plural ruths)

1. (archaic) Sorrow for the misery of another; pity, compassion; mercy. [from 13th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 11, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     It was my fortune to be at Rome, upon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-way theefe, was executed: at his strangling no man of the companie seemed to be mooved to any ruth […].

   • 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 57:

     […] under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of ruth […].

   • 2011, Turisas (Mathias Nygård), Hunting Pirates

     Scum they are! —Foe of mankind!
     Clear the sea! —Show no ruth!

2. (now rare) Repentance; regret; remorse. [from 13th c.]
   • 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XLIV, 2005, The Works of A. E. Housman [1994, The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman], page 61,

     Now to your grave shall friend and stranger
     With ruth and some with envy come […].

   • ~1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur

     He mourned too late
     In ruth for the rending of the Round Table.

3. (obsolete) Sorrow; misery; distress. [13th–19th c.]
4. (obsolete) Something which causes regret or sorrow; a pitiful sight. [13th–17th c.]

Derived terms

• ruthful
• ruthless
• unruth

Translations

pity — see pity

sorrow — see sorrow

repentance — see repentance

Anagrams

• Hurt, Thur, hurt, thru, thur