rout

rout¹ crowd; defeat

Etymology

The word for a crowd, and later for a defeat, is inherited from Middle English route, also rute,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman rute, route,^[4][5][6][7] which the Anglo-Norman texts use from the early 12th century for a company, a retinue, a crowd, an army, a gang and an unlawful assembly.^[8] The French word comes from Vulgar Latin *rupta (“a broken or detached group”),^{[9][10][7][6]} the feminine of Latin ruptus (“broken”), past participle of rumpō (“to break”).^[10][11][12] The sense of a defeat and disorderly flight, recorded from the 1590s, is from Middle French route (“disorderly flight of troops”), literally a breaking,^[13][9] and Merriam-Webster gives the French noun the senses troop, band and defeat together.^[11] The OED treats the military sense as a later borrowing of the French noun in the sense of a military defeat, which it explains as a noun use of the feminine of rout, an old past participle of rompre (“to break up, disperse”).^[4] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Ayto take it through Italian rotta (“breakage; rout of an army”),^{[12][7][14][15]} and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate suggests mettre en route (“to set going”).^[2] The same Latin verb is the source of route, routine and rut, and of rupture, corrupt, disrupt and erupt.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A group of people, a company or troop: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was common for any company: Chaucer used it 49 times and Gower 45 times for a group or crowd.^[16] It was also used of a pack or herd of animals from about 1300, and of a lord's retinue from about 1325.^[4] Already about 1300 it could mean a disreputable mob or gang,^[4][13] while from about 1425 the rout was the common people, the rabble.^[4][12] In law it named, from 1429, an unlawful assembly of three or more people that has begun to carry out its purpose,^[4][17] and since 1439 also a riot or noisy disturbance.^[4][12] In the 18th century a rout was also a large fashionable evening party.^[12][2] The military sense, an utter defeat followed by disorderly flight, appears in the 1590s: the OED cites it from 1595 and Barnhart from 1598, in Robert Barret's Theory and Practice of Modern Wars.^{[4][11][13][9]} The verb, to put an army to flight, followed about 1600,^[4][13][9] and both noun and verb were extended to arguments in the 17th century and to defeats in politics and sport in the 1830s.^[4] In Scotland and northern England the noun kept the sense of a crowd or rabble into the 19th century.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – a company, troop or crowd of people.^[4][13]
• c. 1300 – a pack or herd of animals; a disorderly mob or gang.^[4]
• c. 1325 – a retinue.^[4]
• c. 1425 – the rout, the common people, the rabble.^[4]
• 1429 – in law, an unlawful assembly.^[4]
• 1439 – a disturbance of the peace; a riot.^[4]
• 1595 – an overwhelming defeat followed by disorderly retreat.^[4][11] Barnhart dates it to 1598.^[13]
• 1600 – verb, to defeat and put to flight.^[4][11]
• 1831 – a heavy defeat in politics or sport.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An overwhelming defeat: The match ended in a 7–0 rout.^[5][11][4]
2. A disorderly retreat or flight after a defeat: put to rout.^[5][11][4]
3. A noisy disorderly crowd; a rabble or mob.^[5][2][4]
4. (law) An assembly of three or more people who have begun to carry out an unlawful act.^[5][4][17]
5. (archaic) A large fashionable party or gathering.^[5][2][12]
6. (archaic) A company or band of people, or a flock or herd of animals.^[7][11]

Verb

1. To defeat an enemy completely and force it to flee in disorder.^[5][11][4]
2. To defeat an opponent heavily, as in an election or a game: The home side routed their rivals.^[11][4]

rout² roar, bellow

Etymology

The verb meaning to roar or bellow is inherited from Middle English routen (“to cry out, roar”),^[19][11][10] borrowed from Old Norse rauta (“to roar”).^{[19][11][10][7]} The OED compares Norwegian raute (“to low, bellow”) and Old Swedish röta (“to bellow, roar”), and takes the Norse verb from an ablaut variant of the base of Old English rēotan (“to wail”) and Old High German riozan (“to wail, roar”).^[4] Merriam-Webster also compares Latin rudō (“to roar”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, to cry out or roar: about 1300, in Havelok.^[4][19]

Semantic evolution

From about 1400 the verb was used of cattle lowing or bellowing,^[4][19] and in Scots of a bull or monster roaring.^[4] A noun rout, a bellow or a loud shout, is recorded from 1513 in Gavin Douglas's Scots translation of Virgil;^[4][11] the OED takes it either from the verb or from Norse.^[4] In the 19th century Wright found the verb in general dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and England, of cattle lowing, a donkey braying or anything making a loud noise.^[18] Merriam-Webster and the OED record it as a transitive verb, to shout something out, from 1807.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – of a person, to cry out, roar.^[4][19]
• c. 1400 – of cattle, to bellow, low.^[4][19]
• 1513 – noun, a bellow; c. 1522, a loud shout or uproar.^[4][11]
• 1807 – transitive, to shout out.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dialect, chiefly British) Of cattle, to bellow or low loudly.^[11][2][18]
2. (dialect, chiefly British) To roar or make a loud noise.^[11][18]
3. (dialect, chiefly British) To shout something out.^[11][4]

Noun

1. (dialect, chiefly British) A loud noise; an uproar or bellow.^[11][7]

rout³ dig with the snout; rout out

Etymology

The verb meaning to dig with the snout is an alteration of root, to dig with the snout,^{[11][13][7][5][15]} or, as the OED has it, a variant of the older wrout, which goes back to the same verb.^[4] That verb, earlier wroot, is from Middle English wroten (“to dig with the snout”), wrōtan (“to root up”).^[9][19][20] Dictionary.com compares Middle Dutch ruten.^[6] Used with the adverb out, meaning to get rid of, it apparently comes from the phrase root out; in its first record, in 1559, it renders Latin exstirpō (“to root out”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a pig or other animal, to dig in the ground with the snout: 1541, in the Schole House of Women.^[4] Barnhart dates it to 1547–64,^[13] and Merriam-Webster to about 1564.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The phrase rout out, to find and remove something harmful, is recorded from 1559.^[4] The sense of poking about or rummaging appears in Swift's Journal to Stella (1711),^[4][13] and that of searching out or fetching a person from about 1776.^[4] From 1787, chiefly in North America, a person could be routed out of bed.^[4] A woodworking sense, to gouge or hollow out, is recorded from 1726, and the cutting of grooves in wood or metal from 1818,^[4][13] the year Barnhart gives for the tool called a router.^[13] In the dialects of northern and western England the verb was still used of a pig burrowing with its snout.^[18]

Timeline

• 1541 – of a pig, to dig with the snout.^[4]
• 1559 – rout out, to get rid of, eradicate.^[4]
• 1711 – to poke about, rummage.^[4][13]
• 1726 – to tear up the ground; to hollow out.^[4][13]
• c. 1776 – to search out, fetch.^[4]
• 1787 – to get a person out of bed.^[4]
• 1818 – to cut a groove in wood or metal.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a pig, to dig in the ground with the snout; to root.^[11][7][4]
2. To search about; to rummage: She routed through the drawer for a pen.^[11][7][4]
3. To drive or force out, especially from bed or from a hiding place: usually rout out.^[11][7][4]
4. To find by searching; to uncover: routing out new talent.^[2][4]
5. To cut a groove or hollow in wood or metal, as with a router.^[11][7][4]

Word family

• router