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Rue vs Due - What's the difference?

rue | due |

As nouns the difference between rue and due

is that rue is while due is deserved acknowledgment.

As an adjective due is

owed or owing.

As an adverb due is

(used with compass directions) directly; exactly.

rue

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) rewe, reowe, from (etyl) .

Noun

(-)
  • (archaic, or, dialectal) Sorrow; repentance; regret.
  • (archaic, or, dialectal) Pity; compassion.
    • Derived terms
    * rueful * ruth

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) , from Germanic. Cognate with Dutch rouwen, German reuen.

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
  • (obsolete) To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
  • To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
    • I rued the day I crossed paths with her.
  • * (rfdate) Chapman
    • I wept to see, and rued it from my heart.
  • * (rfdate) Milton
    • Thy will chose freely what it now so justly rues .
  • (archaic) To feel compassion or pity.
  • * Late 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
    • Madame, reweth upon my peynes smerte
  • * (rfdate) Ridley
    • which stirred men's hearts to rue upon them
  • (archaic) To feel sorrow or regret.
  • * (rfdate) Tennyson
    • Old year, we'll dearly rue for you.
    Usage notes
    Most frequently used in the collocation “rue the day”.

    Etymology 3

    (wikipedia rue) From (etyl) ruwe, (etyl) rue (> modern French rue), from (etyl) . Compare (rude).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta , especially the herb , formerly used in medicines.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.2:
    • But th'aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre, / Had gathered Rew , and Savine, and the flowre / Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill [...].
  • * c. 1600 , (William Shakespeare), , (Ophelia):
    • There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue''' for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your ' rue with a difference.
    Synonyms
    * garden rue * herb of grace
    Derived terms
    * goat's rue * rue anemone * Syrian rue * wall rue

    References

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    due

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Owed or owing.
  • Appropriate.
  • * Gray
    • With dirges due , in sad array, / Slow through the churchway path we saw him borne.
  • Scheduled; expected.
  • Having reached the expected, scheduled, or natural time.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.}}
  • Owing; ascribable, as to a cause.
  • * J. D. Forbes
    • This effect is due to the attraction of the sun.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Mother

    Synonyms

    * (owed or owing) needed, owing, to be made, required * (appropriate) * expected, forecast * (having reached the scheduled or natural time) expected

    Derived terms

    * driving without due care and attention * due date * due to * in due time * taxes due * with all due respect

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (used with compass directions) Directly; exactly.
    • The river runs due north for about a mile.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Deserved acknowledgment.
    • Give him his due — he is a good actor.
  • * {{quote-news, author=Daniel Taylor, title=David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked, work=(The Guardian) (London), date=31 January 2015 citation
    • , passage=Chelsea, to give them their due , did start to cut out the defensive lapses as the game went on but they needed to because their opponents were throwing everything at them in those stages and, if anything, seemed encouraged by the message that Mourinho’s Rémy-Cahill switch sent out.}}
  • (in plural dues ) A membership fee.
  • That which is owed; debt; that which belongs or may be claimed as a right; whatever custom, law, or morality requires to be done, duty.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He will give the devil his due .
  • * Tennyson
    • Yearly little dues of wheat, and wine, and oil.
  • Right; just title or claim.
  • * Milton
    • The key of this infernal pit by due I keep.

    Derived terms

    * give someone his due * give the devil his due

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----