rule

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ruːl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English riwle, reule,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French riule, Norman reule “rule, custom, religious order”,^[4][2] from Vulgar Latin *regula, altered under the influence of regere “to rule”,^[2] from Latin rēgula (“straight stick, bar, ruler; pattern, model”),^[4][2] related to regere (“to rule, straighten, guide”),^[4][2][5] which Etymonline takes to Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[4] In modern French the word was partly re-Latinized as règle.^[4] The verb is from Old French riuler, reuler, from Late Latin rēgulāre “to regulate”.^[2][4][5] Latin regere is also the source of regent and royal.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A principle or regulation governing conduct: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle, “the rule for anchoresses”,^[2][4] and the code of a religious order before 1225.^[7] The verb, “to direct, guide”, is also from probably before 1200.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

By the mid-14th century rule meant control, government and dominion,^[4] and a strip with a straight edge for drawing lines or measuring was also a rule then.^[4] A principle regulating practice, a fixed custom, is from 1387.^[7] A regulation of a game is from the 1690s,^[4][7] rules of the game by 1787,^[4] and to bend the rules by the 1680s.^[4] Rule of thumb is from 1692,^[2] probably from the old use of parts of the body, such as the thumb, as measures.^[6] Rule the roost was first rule the roast, from the late 15th century, perhaps of the chief person at a feast, and changed to roost in the 18th century.^[6] The legal sense of the verb, “to lay down authoritatively”, is from the early 15th century,^[4] “to mark with parallel lines” from the 1590s,^[4] and the slang intransitive sense, “to be the best”, by 1975.^[4] Rule of law is from 1883.^[4] Ruler is from before 1382, both the person who rules and the straightedge.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – a principle governing conduct; verb, to direct.^[2][4]
• before 1225 – the rule of a religious order.^[7]
• mid-14th century – government; a straightedge.^[4]
• before 1382 – ruler.^[2]
• early 15th century – verb, to decide judicially.^[4]
• late 15th century – rule the roast.^[6]
• 1590s – verb, to mark with lines.^[4]
• 1692 – rule of thumb.^[2]
• 1690s – a rule of a game.^[4]
• 1883 – rule of law.^[4]
• 1975 – slang, to be the best.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A stated principle or regulation governing conduct or procedure, as in a game or organization.
2. Governing power; government or the period of it.
3. The usual way things happen; a general principle: as a rule.
4. The code of a religious order.
5. (law) An order or decision of a court.
6. A straight strip used for measuring or drawing lines; a ruler.
7. (printing) A thin line.

Verb

1. To govern or control.
2. To have a dominating influence over.
3. To decide or declare officially, as a judge.
4. To mark with straight parallel lines.
5. (slang) To be excellent: this band rules.

Word family

• rulable
• self-ruling
• misrule
• overrule
• rule out

Related words

• regulate
• regent
• regular
• regime
• royal
• right
• rector
• rex

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press