Etymology

ruefulness

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Today it means: The property of being rueful. Full definition →

English rueful ← Middle English reuful ← Proto-Germanic *fullaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*hrewwaną
  2. Proto-West Germanic*hreuwan
  3. Proto-West Germanic*hreuwu
  4. Old Englishhrēow
  5. Middle Englishrewe
  6. Proto-Indo-European*pleh₁-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*pl̥h₁nós
  8. Proto-Germanic*fullaz
  9. Middle Englishreuful
  10. Englishrueful
  11. English todayruefulness

From rueful + -ness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.