Rue

How to spell rue

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce rue

What does rue mean?

1. verbTo deeply regret something one has done or failed to do.
2. nounA bitter-tasting evergreen herb once used in medicine and cooking.

Rue in a sentence

• verb

  Investors who ignored the warning came to rue the decision.

• noun

  The old apothecary garden still grows a patch of rue near the wall.

• verb

  He would rue the day he ever signed that contract.

• noun

  A few crushed leaves of rue gave the tonic its sharp, bitter edge.

Where does rue come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The verb rue comes from the Old English hreowan, meaning 'to grieve, to feel sorrow or remorse', and the related noun hreow, meaning 'sorrow' or 'repentance'. These belonged to a wider Germanic family, with cousins like the Old High German hriuwan, all carrying the sense of inner regret rather than outward complaint. Over the centuries the word narrowed to its modern meaning, 'to bitterly regret something one has done', and it now survives mainly in slightly literary phrasing such as 'you will rue the day'. The unrelated plant called rue, a bitter medicinal herb, has a completely separate history, arriving through Latin ruta from Greek rhyte; the two words simply ended up spelled the same. For spelling, the trap is the homophone trio with roux (the cooked flour-and-fat base) and roo (informal for kangaroo), so the short, plain -ue ending must be kept clear in the mind.

How the word is built

• rue (single root; from Old English hreow, sorrow/regret)