rumour - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English rumour, from Old French rumour, rumor, from Latin rūmor (“common talk”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *rewH- (“to shout, roar”).

(Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹuːmə(ɹ)/
(General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹuːmɚ/
Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)

rumour (countable and uncountable, plural rumours)

British, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland spelling of rumor.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “1/1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎[1]:
  There were rumours, new rumours every morning, delightful and outrageous rumours, so that the lumps in the porridge were swallowed without comment and the fish-cakes were eaten without contumely.
- 1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:
  "Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.
- 1969, Peter Vansittart, Pastimes of a Red Summer: A Novel‎[2], Owen, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 140:
  I myself gave support to the summoning of the Estates General ... as merely mistaken . Similarly it might be held that Paradise originated in a rumour invented in hell to make society the more interesting . ' ' We need a saviour .
(obsolete) A prolonged, indistinct noise.
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv], page 18:
  Prithee, listen well; / I heard a bustling rumour like a fray, / And the wind brings it from the Capitol.

rumourmonger

rumour (third-person singular simple present rumours, present participle rumouring, simple past and past participle rumoured)

Commonwealth standard spelling of rumor.
- 1961 November, “Talking of Trains: Drastic cuts in Scotland?”, in Trains Illustrated, page 644:
  Two of the four main routes over the Border were rumoured to be threatened with withdrawal of, or heavy cuts in, passenger services.