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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rufus.

red (in the most general sense, of all shades including orange and yellow)

5 characters2 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

adj[ˈruː.fʊs]Classical-Latin[ˈruː.fus]
  1. red (in the most general sense, of all shades including orange and yellow)

    adjective · declension-1 · declension-2
  2. red-haired, including shades of hair considered in modern English to be brown or blond

    adjective · declension-1 · declension-2
Where this word comes from

From Proto-Italic *rouðos. The medial -f- indicates a borrowing from a Sabellic language such as Oscan 𐌓𐌖𐌚𐌓𐌉𐌉𐌔 (rufriis), Umbrian 𐌓𐌖𐌚𐌓𐌖 (rufru), or from a sister variety such as Faliscan, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”). It might have penetrated urban Latin by virtue of the fact that it was used as an attribute for oxen sold in the markets in Rome.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.