diff --git a/lib/uri/generic.rb b/lib/uri/generic.rb
index 140fb055de..16cc8885bb 100644
--- a/lib/uri/generic.rb
+++ b/lib/uri/generic.rb
@@ -946,7 +946,25 @@ module URI
     end
 
     #
-    # Checks if URI has a path
+    # Returns true if URI is hierarchical
+    #
+    # == Description
+    #
+    # URI has components listed in order of decreashing signficance from left to right
+    # see RFC3986 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 1.2.3
+    #
+    # == Usage
+    #
+    #   require 'uri'
+    #
+    #   uri = URI.parse("http://my.example.com/")
+    #   => #<URI::HTTP http://my.example.com/>
+    #   uri.hierarchical?
+    #   # => true
+    #   uri = URI.parse("mailto:joe@example.com")
+    #   => #<URI::MailTo mailto:joe@example.com>
+    #   uri.hierarchical?
+    #   # => false
     #
     def hierarchical?
       if @path
@@ -957,7 +975,7 @@ module URI
     end
 
     #
-    # Checks if URI is an absolute one
+    # Returns true if URI has a scheme (e.g. http:// or https://) specified
     #
     def absolute?
       if @scheme
@@ -969,7 +987,7 @@ module URI
     alias absolute absolute?
 
     #
-    # Checks if URI is relative
+    # Returns true if URI does not have a scheme (e.g. http:// or https://) specified
     #
     def relative?
       !absolute?
diff --git a/test/uri/test_generic.rb b/test/uri/test_generic.rb
index 7e428aa849..31aa5c7552 100644
--- a/test/uri/test_generic.rb
+++ b/test/uri/test_generic.rb
@@ -774,6 +774,24 @@ class URI::TestGeneric < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal 'http://example', uri.to_s
   end
 
+  def test_hierarchical
+    hierarchical = URI.parse('http://a.b.c/example')
+    opaque = URI.parse('mailto:mduerst@ifi.unizh.ch')
+
+    assert hierarchical.hierarchical?
+    refute opaque.hierarchical?
+  end
+
+  def test_absolute
+    abs_uri = URI.parse('http://a.b.c/')
+    not_abs = URI.parse('a.b.c')
+
+    refute not_abs.absolute?
+
+    assert abs_uri.absolute
+    assert abs_uri.absolute?
+  end
+
   def test_ipv6
     assert_equal("[::1]", URI("http://[::1]/bar/baz").host)
     assert_equal("::1", URI("http://[::1]/bar/baz").hostname)