rún

Forms

rún f (genitive rúnar, plural rúnar or rúnir) (strong ō-stem)^[1] Proto-Norse runo on the Einang stone (runo faihido) and on the Noleby stone.^[2][3] Proto-Norse runoz on the Järsberg stone (ek erilaz runoz waritu).^[4] Old Norwegian runic runar (accusative plural) on the Hafstad stick.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Norse ᚱᚢᚾᛟ (runo),^[1] from Proto-Germanic *rūnō (“secret, mystery”).^[6][1] The Germanic noun is also Gothic 𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌰 (runa, “mystery, secret”), Old English rūn (“whisper, secret, rune”), Old Saxon rūna (“confidential talk”) and Old High German rūna (“mystery”).^[6][7] Finnish runo (“song”) was borrowed from it.^[8][9]

Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon takes the first sense to have been “secret, secret whispering”, from which “secret writing” grew, and sets beside it the verbs Middle Low German rūnen, Old High German rūnēn (“to whisper”) and Old English rūnian.^[8] The word has a close match only in Celtic, Old Irish rún (“secret, mystery”) and Welsh rhin (“secret, charm”): Orel and de Vries leave open whether the two are related or the Germanic word was borrowed from Celtic, as Marstrander held.^[6][9] Its further origin is unclear.^[9] De Vries considers two connections, with raun (“trial”) and Ancient Greek ἐρευνάω (ereunáō, “to search out”), or with Latin rūmor (“rumour”).^[9] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon prefers the second and adds Ancient Greek ὠρύομαι (ōrúomai, “to howl”).^[8] Köbler's Old English dictionary puts it under the root Proto-Indo-European *reu- (“to roar, murmur”).^[10]

Cleasby and Vigfússon thought that it, the noun for “trial” and reyna all came from a lost strong verb meaning “to enquire”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded first in Proto-Norse inscriptions: on the Einang stone, dated 350/375–400 by Imer, runo faihido “(I) coloured the rune”, and on the Noleby stone, dated 375/400–560/570, runo fahi raginakudo “I prepare the rune from the gods”.^[2][3] There it names the carved sign or the carved text itself.^[2] In Old Norse proper Menota dates the runic stick N 182 to 980–1015 (Rundata classes it as medieval): þeir gerðu rúnar þessar Finnr ok Ólafr “Finnr and Ólafr made these runes”.^[12][5]

Semantic evolution

Cleasby and Vigfússon set the sense “secret, hidden lore” first and the runic letter second, and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon also takes “secret” for the older sense.^[11][8] In the record the runic sign comes first, already on the Proto-Norse stones.^[2] In the Eddic poems the plural rúnar is the carved signs of magic and the secret wisdom of giants and gods, as in jǫtna rúnar ok allra goða in Vafþrúðnismál, and also a confidential talk, in heita at rúnum “to call to a private talk”.^[13][11] In prose it is first recorded in the First Grammatical Treatise, dated 1150 by IcePaHC.^[14] The poetic sense “female confidante” is in Snorra Edda, where a woman is called rún búanda síns “her husband's confidante”.^[15][16]

The word continues as Icelandic rún “rune; secret”, and the Swedish runa is a later extension of the Old Swedish form.^[8][17]

Timeline

• 350/375–400 – Proto-Norse runo on the Einang stone, by Imer's dating.^[2]
• 375/400–560/570 – Proto-Norse runo on the Noleby stone, by Imer's dating.^[3]
• 520/530–560/570 – Proto-Norse runoz on the Järsberg stone, by Imer's dating.^[4]
• 980–1015 – rúnar on the Norwegian runic stick N 182, by Menota's dating.^[12]
• 1150 – rúnir and rúnanna in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[14]
• 1180 – runar on the Bergen runic stick N 148.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. a secret; in the plural, hidden lore, secret wisdom.^[11][19][20]
2. (poetic) a confidential talk, a whispering.^[13][11]
3. a rune, a runic letter or magic sign; any written letter.^[20][13]
4. (poetic) a female confidante, of a wife.^[15][21]

Word family

• rúnakefli
• rúni
• rúna
• sigrún

Descendants

• Icelandic rún^[1]
• Faroese rún^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk run^[1]
• Old Swedish rūn^[1]
• Swedish runa^[1]
• Old Danish run^[1]
• Danish rune^[1]

Related words

• raun
• rýna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N KJ63
3. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Vg 63
4. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Vr 1
5. ^ a b Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 182
6. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 310
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 264
8. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. rún
9. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 453
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. rūn
11. ^ a b c d e Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 504
12. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 182
13. ^ a b c Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 473
14. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
15. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. rún
16. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 352
17. ^ Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. runa
18. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 148
19. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. rún
20. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 507
21. ^ Hægstad, Marius; Torp, Alf (1909), Gamalnorsk ordbok med nynorsk tyding, Kristiania: Det norske samlaget, p. 352