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reuen. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
reuen, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
reuen in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
reuen you have here. The definition of the word
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German
Etymology
From a merger of:
- Middle High German riuwen (strong declension), from Old High German riuwan, hriuwan, from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwan, from Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną; and
- Middle High German riuwen (weak declension), itself a merger from Old High German riuwēn, from Proto-West Germanic *hriuwjan, from Proto-Germanic *hriuwjan; and Old High German riuwōn, hriuwōn, from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwōn, from *hreuwu (“regret, penance”).
Cognates include Dutch rouwen, English rue, Old Norse hryggva,
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈʁɔʏ̯ən/,
- Hyphenation: reu‧en
Verb
reuen (weak, third-person singular present reut, past tense reute, past participle gereut, auxiliary haben)
- to regret, to be sorry (for), to rue
- to repent (of)
- Es reut ihn. ― He’s sorry about it.
- Es hat mich gereut. ― I was sorry for it.
Conjugation
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Composed forms of
reuen (
weak, auxiliary
haben)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “reuen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “reuen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “reuen” in Duden online
- “reuen” in OpenThesaurus.de