NODE / 0737attestedPresent-Day English

rule

TRANSLITERATION rulePRONUNCIATION /ruːl/

guide, standard, authority, or measuring straightedge

DATE: 13th century–today
SENSE: guide authority straightedge
FAMILY: Indo-European / Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:1:rule:attested:sense:guide-authority-straightedge

The physical and abstract senses remain visible together.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERcontinuationestablished

Middle English · Middle English · guide for action

reule

guide for proper action; rule

SOUND: Modern rule continues Middle English reule through English spelling and pronunciation history.
MEANING: A guide for action expands across standards, authority, procedures, and measurement.
CHRONOLOGY: Merriam-Webster reports use in the thirteenth century.
SCHOLAR: Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors
CONFIDENCE: established

Rule — Definition, Word History, and First Known UsesupportsDefinitions, Word History, and First Known Use

Supplies Middle English reule, the semantic range, and thirteenth-century horizon.

ORIGINAL ↗

Rule — American Heritage DictionarycontextHeadword definitions and etymology

Independently preserves ruler, principle, authority, and straight-line senses.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 724 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

No reviewed descendants currently reuse this node. Absence describes the graph, not the entire history of the form.

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES: 0
REVIEWED EDGES: 0
DEEPEST PATH: 0
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 0

No downstream edge has cleared review for this node. This is a graph-coverage statement, not a claim that the historical form produced nothing.

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

SOURCE-REPORTEDlexicographic first useestablished

13th century

Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for rule

Century-level source report; no underlying thirteenth-century object was directly inspected.

rule dossier · recorded as rule

Merriam-WebsterWITNESS RECORD ↗Rule — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use ↗

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

01rulerule · established