ruthruth

The story

From Middle English ruthe, reuthe, reuþe, reowthe, rewthe (‘compassion, pity, sympathy; mercy; grief, sorrow; cause or event of pity or sorrow; lamentation; calamity, trouble; distress; regret, remorse; cruelty, ill treatment’), from reu, reuen (‘to feel compassion or pity; to regret, rue; etc.’) + -th, -the (suffix denoting a condition, quality, state of being, etc.), possibly influenced by an early Scandinavian language (compare Old Norse hrygð, hryggð (‘affliction, grief, sorrow, ruth’), from the Proto-Germanic word indicated below). Reuen is derived from Old English hrēowan (‘to grieve; to regret, rue; to repent’), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwan (‘to cause pain; to regret’), from Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną (‘to cause regret, rue; to feel sorrow, grieve’); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *krew(H)-, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *krewh₂- (‘blood’) and *krows- (‘to fall, beat, break, bruise’).1uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.