Meaning

noun United States professional baseball player famous for hitting home runs (1895-1948)

noun the great-grandmother of king David whose story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament

noun a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others

originFrom 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0