rumour

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• * (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹuːmə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹuːmɚ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)

Noun

rumour (countable and uncountable, plural rumours)

1. British, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland spelling of rumor
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Rumour had it (though not proved) that she descended from the house of the lords Talbot de Malahide

   • 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 .

   • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 18:

     Dame Rumour outstrides me yet again.

2. (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.

Verb

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

1. 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.