Middle English: ultimately based on Latin ruptus 'broken', from the verb rumpere; sense 1 and the verb (late 16th cent.) are from obsolete French route, probably from Italian rotta 'break-up of an army'; the other senses are via Anglo-Norman French rutemid 16th cent. (in sense 2): alteration of the verb root. Sense 1 dates from the early 19th cent
