Word Confusion: Rude versus Rued

Posted July 21, 2020 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
24 Dec 2022

If it sounds alike, it’s an heterograph (a subset of homophone), and rude and rued definitely sound alike even though they’re completely different in meaning.

Well, you know, I don’t mean to be rude or anything . . . oh, who am I kidding! Of course I wanna be rude. I may rue the day I’m rude, but hey, I’ve rued before.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Rude	Rued
Rude Child is courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors is under the CC0 license, via Pixabay.	Woman in Black Tank Top is under the CC0 license, via Pikrepo. — She rued the day . . .
Part of Grammar:
Adjective	Morpheme: rue Noun ¹; Noun, mass ²; Verb ², intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: rues [Only the plant] Gerund: rueing, ruing Third person present verb: rues Past tense or past participle: rued Present participle: rueing, ruing
Offensively impolite or ill-mannered [Chiefly British] Referring to a taboo subject such as sex in a way considered improper and offensive [Attrib.] having a startling abruptness [Chiefly British; Attrib.] Vigorous or hearty [Dated] Roughly made or done Roughly wrought, built, or formed Of a crude construction or kind Lacking subtlety, culture, refinement, or sophistication [Archaic] Ignorant and uneducated Rough in manners or behavior Unmannerly Uncouth Harsh Ungentle Not properly or fully developed Raw Unevolved Harsh to the ear Violent or tempestuous, as the waves Approximate or tentative	Noun: Any strongly scented plant of the genus Ruta, especially R. graveolens, having yellow flowers and leaves formerly used in medicine ¹ Noun, mass: [Archaic] Repentance ² Regret Compassion Pity Verb, intransitive: To feel sorrow, repentance, or regret ² Verb, transitive: Bitterly regret something one has done or allowed to happen ² To wish that (something) had never been done, taken place, etc.
Examples:
She had been rude to her boss. It’s rude to talk about people right in front of them. They were rude, illiterate peasants. Graham giggled at every rude joke. The war came as a very rude awakening. Isabel had always been in rude health. It was but a rude coffin. He laid his rude hands on me. The new religion was first promulgated by rude men. It’s in a rude first stage of development. He kept making these rude sounds. Can you give me a rude first calculation of costs?	Noun: Although rue is often used as an ornamental plant in gardens or flowerbeds, its strong smell usually makes rue unpopular for use close to homes. Many herbs can help to deter flies, such as lavender, sweet woodruff, lemon verbena, star anise, tansy, any of the mints, rosemary, bay, chamomile, rue, elder, southernwood and basil. Noun, mass: With rue my heart is laden. They were tears of pitying rue. “I . . . won her from various rivals, who . . . went away, one may say, full of rue.” – Brian Doyle Verb, intransitive: This day shall I rue. As Jim Smith rued afterwards, the game was there for Portsmouth to take. “Deeming it most convenient to obey, / Or possibly they might their folly rue” (Kulsūm). Verb, transitive: Ferguson rued the day he turned down that offer. She might live to rue this impetuous decision. He rued the loss of opportunities. I rued the day he was born.
Derivatives:
Adjective: overrude Adverb: overrudely, rudely, ruder, rudest Noun: rudeness, rudery, rudesby [British]	Adjective: rueful, unrued Noun: ruer
History of the Word:
Middle English from the Old French, which is from the Latin rudis meaning unwrought, referring to handicraft, figuratively meaning uncultivated. It is related to rudus meaning broken stone.	Middle English, from the Old French, which is from the Latin rūta, either from the Greek rhūtē (probably of Mediterranean substrate origin) or from the same substrate source as the Greek rhūtē. Old English hrēow meaning repentance, hrēowan meaning affect with contrition, is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch rouw meaning mourning and the German Reue meaning remorse.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

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