WORD of the day

ruth \ROOTH\, noun:

1. Compassion or pity for another.
2. Sorrow or misery about one's own misdeeds or flaws.
3. In the Bible, a Moabite woman who married Boaz and became an ancestor of David: the daughter-in-law of Naomi.
4. Book of the Bible bearing her name.
5. A female given name.
Even when she had been loudest in denouncing Ayala's mutiny, her heart had melted in ruth because Ayala had been so unhappy.
-- Anthony Trollope, Ayala's Angel
And speak me no soft words in ruth or pity, but tell me plainly how thou didst get sight of him.
-- Homer, The Odyssey

Distinct from the Biblical figure, ruth is a descendent of the Middle English ruthe, from Old Norse hrygdh.