Etymologically
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rude

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɹuːd/ (UK); /ɹud/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English reud, rude, borrowed from Old French rude and directly borrowed from Latin rudis (“rough, crude, unwrought, uncultivated”),[2][3][4][5] of uncertain origin, related to rūdus (“rubble, broken stone”).[2][3][6] Hoad and NODE note that rudis was first a craftsman's term for unworked material.[4][6] De Vaan, quoted by Etymonline, rejects the usual link with rūfus (“red”) through the idea of raw meat.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coarse, rough, unfinished, of a surface or a board: about 1280 in Barnhart, the late 13th century in Etymonline.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Of a writer or writing, artless or simple, it is from before 1325.[2] Ill-mannered and uncultured, and uneducated or ignorant, are from the mid-14th century, as is violent or rough of actions.[3][2][7] Of low birth, common or humble, is from the late 14th century.[3] Discourteous, contrary to politeness, is perhaps late 14th-century but certainly established by the 16th, and hard to separate from unrefined.[3] Word Origins notes that the main sense for children today, referring to sex in an embarrassing way, is recorded only from the early 1910s.[8][9] A rude awakening is from 1895,[3] and the Jamaican rude boy, a lawless urban youth, from the 1960s (1967).[3][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1280 – rough, of a board.[2]
  • before 1325 – artless, simple.[2]
  • mid-14th century – ill-mannered; ignorant.[3]
  • late 14th century – of low birth.[3]
  • 1895 – a rude awakening.[3]
  • early 1910s – indecent.[8]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Impolite or discourteous; offensive in manner.
  2. Vulgar or indecent: a rude joke.
  3. Sudden and unpleasant: a rude shock.
  4. Roughly made; primitive or crude.
  5. (archaic) Uneducated or unsophisticated.
  6. (chiefly British) Vigorous: in rude health.

Word family

  • rudely
  • rudeness
  • overrude
  • unrude
  • rudiment
  • rudimentary
  • erudition
  • erudite
  • crude

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins