Ruthenian

[ roo-thee-nee-uhn, -theen-yuhn ]

adjective

1. Also Ru·thene []. 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

/ ruːˈθiːnɪən /

adjective

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

noun

1. a dialect of Ukrainian
2. a native or inhabitant of Ruthenia

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ruthenian¹

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

Example Sentences

Because of the country’s turbulent history, Korkosz explains that Polish cuisine shares many similarities with other national cuisines like French, Italian, German, Ruthenian, Jewish, Lithuanian, Turkish and Ukrainian, resulting in an eclectic mix of flavors and ingredients, some of the more surprising of which — like miso, grapes and pistachios — made their way into the pages of “Polish’d.”

From Salon

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

There are more than 100 artworks in the Tate show, which looks at Warhol’s work from many perspectives, Moran says: the significance of him being the son of immigrant parents from present-day Slovakia and how that might have affected his view of America, his upbringing in the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic church, his fascination with celebrity and obsession with death, as well as looking at the work from a queer perspective.

From The Guardian

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

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