Etymologically
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ruta

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈruː.ta][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈruː.ta][1]

Forms

rūta f (genitive rūtae); first declension[1] Lucilius has the archaic genitive rutai.[2] Ovid uses the plural rutae.[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ῥυτή (rhutḗ, “rue”).[4][3][5][1] Wiktionary describes the Greek word as Peloponnesian in origin,[1] and Köbler calls its further origin unclear.[6] Varro, discussing the Latin name, says that the plant is now called πήγανον (pḗganon).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato names it in his work on farming.[7] Köbler's earliest source is Cicero.[6]

Semantic evolution

It is the strong-smelling herb rue, which Columella, Celsus and Pliny the Elder mention in gardening and medicine.[3][2] Cicero uses it figuratively for bitterness: of a visitor he expects, he writes that against that man's rue he will need the pennyroyal of his correspondent's talk.[3][7] Petronius has the joking phrase in rutae folium conicere, “to throw into a rue leaf”, that is, to defeat someone utterly.[4][7] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps the herb.[8] Wiktionary lists its descendants in the Romance languages, among them Italian ruta and French rue, from which English took rue.[1]

Timeline

  • 234–149 BC – Cato names the herb.[7][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it figuratively for bitterness.[3][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella writes about growing it.[3][6]
  • before 66 AD – Petronius has in rutae folium conicere.[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The herb rue.[4][3]
  2. (figurative) Bitterness, unpleasantness.[3][7]
  3. in rūtae folium conicere: to defeat completely.[4][7]

Word family

  • rutaceus
  • rūtātus
  • rūtula

Usage notes

The neuter plural rūta in the legal phrase rūta (et) caesa, “things dug up and cut down”, meaning minerals and timber already quarried and felled when an estate was sold, has a separate origin: it belongs with ruō.[4][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill