ruth
nouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ɹuːθ//
- United Kingdom//ɹʉwθ//
- United States//ɹuθ//
- Australia//ɹʉːθ//
Sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
noun
- 1
archaicSorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
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?
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.
- 2
archaicRegret, remorse, repentance.
But, what afflicts my peace with keenest ruth, / Is, that I have my inner self abused, / Forgone the home delight of constant truth, / And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth.
I seek these anchorites, not in ruth, / To curse and to deny your truth; […]
Now to your grave shall friend and stranger / With ruth and some with envy come: […]
Then rage left him, || and his wrath sickened, / his mood faltered. || He mourned too late / in ruth for the rending || of the Round Table.
- 3
obsoleteMatter for regret or sorrow; calamity, ruin; also, occasion for regret or sorrow; (countable) an instance of this; a disaster, a pitiful thing.
They ſay it is a ruth to ſee thy louer neede, / But you can ſee me vveepe, but you can ſee me bleede: / And neuer ſhrinke nor ſhame, ne ſhed no teare at all, / You make my vvounds your ſelfe, and fill them vp vvith gall: […]
Ah deareſt God (quoth he) that is great vvoe, / And vvondrous ruth to all, that ſhall it heare.
Yet novv I doe repent me of his ruth, / And vviſh that I had neuer vvronged him ſo: […]
Svveet adieu, Ile keepe my oath, / Patiently to beare my vvroath.
- 4
obsoleteDistress, misery, sorrow.
Here lyes to each her parents ruth, / Mary, the daughter of their youth: / Yet, all heauens gifts, being heauens due, / It makes the father, leſſe, to rue.
Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, / In thy heart the dew of youth, / On thy lips the smile of truth.
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).
Forms
- plural
- ruths
ruth · Sorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.
Ruth · A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.Ruthie · A diminutive of the female given name Ruth.ruthless · Without pity or compassion; cruel, pitiless.