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Ruthenian

American  
[roo-thee-nee-uhn, -theen-yuhn] / ruˈθi ni ən, -ˈθin jən /

adjective

  1. Also Ruthene of or relating to the inhabitants of Ruthenia, Galicia, and neighboring regions.


noun

  1. one of the Ruthenian people.

  2. the dialect of Ukrainian spoken in Ruthenia.

  3. a member of a former Orthodox religious group that entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church in 1596 and became the “Uniate Church of the Little Russians.”

Ruthenian British  
/ ruːˈθiːnɪən /

adjective

  1. of or relating to Ruthenia, its people, or their dialect of Ukrainian

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a dialect of Ukrainian

  2. a native or inhabitant of Ruthenia

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Ruthenian

First recorded in 1840–50; Rutheni(a) + -an


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

In its eastern and southeastern regions, the union’s dominant languages were Polish and Ruthenian, the predecessor to modern-day Ukrainian and Belarusian.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 21, 2022

Warhol’s parents both spoke Ruthenian, and the artist understood it enough to use it in 1980, when he met Pope John Paul II, who knew the language from his upbringing in southern Poland.

From New York Times ● Oct. 7, 2018

Traditional dress is embroidered with distinctive diamond shapes in earthy tones while their dialect is a swirl of old Ruthenian, Romanian, Magyar, and their own esoteric expressions.

From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2016

The same fate befell 3,500,000 Ruthenian Catholics, now citizens of the U.S.S.R.

From Time Magazine Archive

We hardly know which we should admire the more, the faithfulness of the simple-minded Ruthenian, or the devotedness of the few missionaries who, for the last fifteen years, have lived, worked and died among them.

From Catholic Problems in Western Canada by George Thomas Daly

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