rush

Rush, to move fast, and rush, the marsh plant, are different words.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /rʌʃ/^[4]

rush¹ hurry

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ruschen, russhen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman russher, a variant of Old French ruser, reüser “to dodge, repel”,^[1][2][5] from Latin recūsāre “to object to, refuse”,^[1][3] the source of recuse.^[1][3] It is related to ruse.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To drive back, repel: 1375 in Barnhart, in Barbour's Bruce, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[2][1] To move quickly, dash, about 1380, in Sir Ferumbras.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a charge or onslaught, is from about 1380.^[2][6] The meaning “to do something quickly” is from the 1650s,^[1] and the transitive “to hurry someone or something along” from 1850.^[1] A mass migration, especially to a gold field, is from 1848, in American English, with reference to California.^[1] In rugby and football rush is by 1857.^[1] The rush hour is from 1888 in Etymonline and 1898 in Barnhart,^[1][2] and the adjective, needing haste, as in rush order, is from 1879.^[2][6] At American colleges a rush was a contest of strength between classes (1860), and by 1896 it was the recruiting of students by fraternities and sororities.^[1] The first prints of a day's filming are rushes from 1924,^[6] and a surge of pleasure from a drug is from the 1960s.^[1]

Timeline

• 1375 – to drive back.^[2]
• c. 1380 – to dash; noun, a charge.^[2]
• 1650s – to act quickly.^[1]
• 1848 – a gold rush.^[1]
• 1888 – rush hour.^[1]
• 1896 – fraternity rush.^[1]
• 1960s – a surge of pleasure.^[1]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To move or do something very quickly; to hurry.
2. To make someone act or something happen too fast.
3. To take someone or something somewhere quickly.
4. To attack suddenly.
5. (US) To try to recruit a student into a fraternity or sorority.

Noun

1. A sudden fast movement, or a busy time when many people do the same thing.
2. A need to hurry.
3. A sudden strong feeling, especially of pleasure.

rush² plant

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rishe, resh, rush, inherited from Old English risc, resc, rysc,^[1][2][3] from Proto-Germanic *rusk-,^[1] the source also of Middle Low German rusch and Dutch rus.^[1][2] It is perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *rezg- (“to plait, weave”), the root of Latin restis “rope” and Sanskrit rájju- “rope”.^[1][2][5] The OED notes that the many vowel variants make its history far from clear.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A marsh plant with straight stems: about 725 in the OED and Barnhart.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Rushes were used for torches and rushlights, for finger rings, and strewn on floors, especially when visitors came.^[1][6] By the early 14th century the rush was a type of something weak or worthless, as in not worth a rush.^[1][6]

Timeline

• c. 725 – the plant.^[6]
• a. 1300 – a thing of no value.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A plant with long thin hollow stems that grows in wet places, used to make mats, baskets and chair seats.

Related words

• ruse
• recuse
• bulrush
• rushlight

References

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