Where does “rueful” come from?
Rueful comes from Middle English ruful, meaning sorrowful or regretful, ultimately from Old English hrēow meaning repentance or sorrow.
rueful (English): Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow,...
Definitions
- Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow,...
Ancestry of “rueful”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | reuful | sorrowful, distraught, rueful; grieving,... |
| 2 | Middle English | -ful | Appended to nouns to form adjectives denoting... |
| 3 | Old English | -ful | full of; -ful |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | -fullaz | -ful |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | fullaz | full; the whole, the entire |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | pl̥h₁nós | full |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | pleh₁- | to fill |