ruthless
without compassion
TRANSLATION
ruthless = rücksichtslos, unbarmherzig --- GOOGLE INDEX ruthless: approximately 29,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
As individuals, taxi drivers are stuck: their industry is controlled by outdated regulation and now they face RUTHLESS free-market competition.
(New Yorker magazine)
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This is a RUTHLESS world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.
(actor Charlie Chaplain)
(New Yorker magazine)
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This is a RUTHLESS world and one must be ruthless to cope with it.
(actor Charlie Chaplain)
Did you
know?
ruthless
adjective
- having or showing no pity or compassion for others
(Oxford Dictionary)
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Ruthless is formed from ruth (compassion for another) + less. Ruth is not a stand-alone word in this context, rather it refers to the feminine name Ruth from the Bible.
Ruth was a Moabitess, who married into a Hebrew family whose two sons died, leaving the mother Naomi and her two daughters as widows. After Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem, Ruth goes with her and in a famous Bible passage says to Naomi:
"Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." (Book of Ruth 1:16-17)
Ruth thus became associated with compassion and pity for others. The name itself is probably a contraction of the Hebrew "reuth," meaning companion, friend, fellow woman, which also led to the English "rue" and German "reuen, bereuen" (to feel regret).
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SYNONYMS
brutal, cold, cold-blooded, ferocious, hard-hearted, harsh, malevolent, merciless, pitiless, remorseless, unforgiving
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Be careful, he has a reputation for being ruthless."
adjective
- having or showing no pity or compassion for others
(Oxford Dictionary)
---
Ruthless is formed from ruth (compassion for another) + less. Ruth is not a stand-alone word in this context, rather it refers to the feminine name Ruth from the Bible.
Ruth was a Moabitess, who married into a Hebrew family whose two sons died, leaving the mother Naomi and her two daughters as widows. After Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem, Ruth goes with her and in a famous Bible passage says to Naomi:
"Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." (Book of Ruth 1:16-17)
Ruth thus became associated with compassion and pity for others. The name itself is probably a contraction of the Hebrew "reuth," meaning companion, friend, fellow woman, which also led to the English "rue" and German "reuen, bereuen" (to feel regret).
---
SYNONYMS
brutal, cold, cold-blooded, ferocious, hard-hearted, harsh, malevolent, merciless, pitiless, remorseless, unforgiving
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Be careful, he has a reputation for being ruthless."
