Regret over work ethic initially by an Englishman? (8)
I believe the answer is:
european
'an englishman?' is the definition.
(englishman is a kind of European)
'regret over work ethic initially' is the wordplay.
'regret' becomes 'rue' (synonyms).
'over' is a reversal indicator.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'ethic initially' becomes 'ean' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'rue' in reverse letter order is 'eur'.
'eur'+'op'+'ean'='EUROPEAN'
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for european that I've seen before include "Swede, perhaps?" , "'Belgian, Spaniard or Greek, say (8)'" , "Native of a continent" , "Of a certain continent" , "The E of the EU" .)