Rother
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A horned animal, especially an ox. obsolete
- 2 A rudder.
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 A river in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, England, which flows into the River Don. countable, uncountable
- 3 A river in Hampshire and West Sussex, England, which flows into the River Arun. countable, uncountable
- 4 A river in Kent and East Sussex, England, which flows into the English Channel. countable, uncountable
"Burwash, spread along a ridge between the rivers Rother and Dudwell, was an important centre of the iron industry three centuries ago when the Weald was England's main source of iron ore."
- 5 A local government district in East Sussex created in 1974, which is named after the river in East Sussex. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Burwash, spread along a ridge between the rivers Rother and Dudwell, was an important centre of the iron industry three centuries ago when the Weald was England's main source of iron ore."
Etymology
From Middle English rother, ruther, reother, from Old English hrūþer, hrȳþer, byforms of hrīþer, hrīþ (“neat; ox”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunþaz, *hrinþaz. Cognate with Dutch rund (“bovine”), German Rind (“bovine; beef”).
From Middle English rother, from Old English rōþor. See rudder.
# For the river in South Yorkshire: Probably 'the chief river', from Middle English Roder, from Proto-Brythonic *ro + Old Welsh *duβr. # For the river in West Sussex: Back-formation from Rotherbridge. # For the river in East Sussex: Back-formation from Rotherfield. Replaced Middle English Liminel, which is cognate with River Limden.
Related phrases
More for "rother"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.