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The prefixes "rub" and "rud" and "ruf" and "rus" and "rut" are filled with words connoting redness. The purpose of this essay is to acquaint us further with some of these words so as to stretch our intellectual muscles yet further. Let's begin with the seemingly most obscure--"rut."

Rutilant/Rutilate

The Oxford Latin Dictionary defines rutilo as "to glow with a bright or golden red color." Virgil, in the Aeneid, could say that "they saw the arms among the clouds glittering (rutilare) brightly." So, in English, we have rutilant, rutilate, rutilated and rutilous. I love the definitions in old dictionaries of rutilate. From Cockeram (1623): Rutilate--to "shine, to make to glister." And, from Blount (1656): Rutiliate--to shine or glare, to make to shine or glister like Gold, to make bright, yellow." Don't you just love the word "glister"? It is seemingly a portmanteau word, consisting of glitter and luster. That glister can have a "redness" signification is evident from Shakespeare's use of it in WT: "How he glisters Through my Rust." Rutilous means "shining with a ruddy hue." You wonder sometimes why the region of Burgundy was so called, but Price's 1829 quotation might help explain it: "In Burgundy, the light brown hair, and gray eye, have succeeded to the asserted rutilous character of its ancient conquerors." But he goes on to say: "The German statees, the real seats of the ancient rutilous fiery Goths of Caesar and Tacitus." The "redness" meaning lying behind rutilant can, however, interchange with the "gleaming" or "shining" signification. From 1542: "O repentance, more rutilant & shining than gold." Or, from Aldous Huxley in 1917: "Behemoth--His eyes are little rutilant stones Sunk in black basalt. But, authors can also speak of "rutilant" berries or "the florid and rutilant part in the coagulated blood." Thus, we have a handful of "rut" terms that have deep historical signficance to give us an elevated way to say "red."

Some Other "Red" Words

Little needs to be said about "ruddy," the major word beginning with "rud" that suggests redness. We also have ruddyish to express a "somewhat red" appearance and ruddyless, though these two are of infrequent appearance. For a classical use of ruddy we can do no better than Coverdale's Bible. In Jacob's final testamentary speech in Genesis, he has this to say (Gen. 49:12): "His eyes are roudier then wyne, and his teth whyter then mylck." Ruddy not only suggests redness but connotes health and cheerfulness, and most often appears as a description of someone's face.

Russet as a noun is defined as "a coarse homespun woollen cloth of reddish-brown, grey or neutral color, formerly used for the dress of peasants and country-folk." From 1417: "Poure men clothed in Russett lyned witt white." One quotation using the word russet in this way brings us to another word that should be mentioned. From Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe: "I wore russet before I wore motley." What is motley? Not simply the first word of a rock band, but, originally a word meaning "cloth woven from threads of two or more colors." But who wore this kind of garment? Well, clowns and other fools. So it could be used to describe the "particolored costume of a jester, harlequin, etc." Then, by extension it could be used to describe "foolery, nonsense; the profession or practice of a jester, clown..."

We are more familiar, however, with the adjectival usage of russet. Dickens has the following: "Objects began to take a bleared and russet color in his eyes." Or, from 1877: "We saw an eagle slowly sailing over the russet wood." One could have a russet lawn or russet plain or russet hues of trees or leaves or even a russet morn enswathed with the sun's early rays.

Concluding with "Ruf" and "Rub"

We have too many words for our own good in this last section, but here goes. The Latin word "rufus" means "red" or, relating to persons, "red-headed," and it has bequeathed rufescent, rufescence, rufus, rufous and rufulous to us. Entemologists picked up on rufescent, which means "of a color tending to reddish; somewhat rufous," and had it refer to red ants. But there is no reason why we can't use words such as rufous to express something reddish about a person. James Joyce did so, in Ulysses (why doesn't that surprise me?), when he said: "Glittered, his rufous skull close to his greencapped desk-lamp sought the face." Or, to describe a geological phenomenon: "Beyond it are detached hills of gneiss and grey and rufous granite.

But the number of words suggesting redness beginning with "rub" is considerable. I will only list the following: (ignoring the medical term Rubella, for measels) ruby, rubious, rubinate, rubor, rubefacient, rubicund, rubicundity, rubefaction, rubescent, rubiginous and rubific. Let's close this essay with two quotations. From Shakespeare's TN we have: "Dianas lip Is not more smooth, and rubious." And then, from Keats: "She was undrest Of all her sapphires, greens, and amethysts, And rubious-argent. Well, I can't help but finish with an attempt at weak humor. Since rubicund means "reddish, flushed, highly colored, esp. as the result of good living," could one say: "If Caesar had fought the Irish, would he have been accused of crossing the Rubicund?" I warned you. Weak humor late at night.

Let this suffice for our brief venture into words for "red." Add them to your vocabulary too.

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