rue

Pronunciation: /ɹuː/

The English word “rue” has 8 meanings listed here.

noun

Sorrow; repentance; regret.
Pity; compassion.
Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.

verb

To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
To feel compassion or pity; to take pity (on), to have compassion (on).
To feel sorrow or regret.

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.