ᚱᚢᚾᛟ

Proto-Norse

FWOTD – 13 October 2012

photograph of the inscription on the Einang stone, which may be the oldest attestation of this word

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *rūnǭ, accusative singular of *rūnō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈruː.noː/

Noun

ᚱᚢᚾᛟ (runo /rūnō/) f (accusative plural ᚱᚢᚾᛟᛉ)

1. secret, mystery
2. rune, inscription, message
   • 4th century, inscription on the Einang stone:

     [ᛖᚲ ...]ᛞᚨᚷᚨᛋᛏᛁᛉ ᚱᚢᚾᛟ ᚠᚨᛁᚺᛁᛞᛟ

     [ek ...]dagastiʀ runo faihido

     [I, ...]dagastiz, painted the rune

Declension

This word is never attested in the nominative singular. However, by looking at other ō-stem nouns such as ᛚᚨᚦᚢ (laþu), and at the Old Norse descendant, we can presume that it should have been *ᚱᚢᚾᚢ (*runu /⁠rūnu⁠/).

Derived terms

• ᚷᛁᚾᛟᚱᛟᚾᛟᛦ (ginoronoʀ, “magically powerful runes”), ᚷᛁᚾᛡᚱᚢᚾᛡᛉ (ginᴀrunᴀʀ, “magically powerful runes”)

Descendants

• Old Norse: rún
  • Icelandic: rún f
  • Faroese: rún f
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: run f, runer f pl (← rúnir); (dialectal) rón f, rjón n
  • Old Swedish: rūn, rūna
    • Swedish: runa c or f
  • Old Danish: rune
    • Danish: rune c (partially through artificial revival), runer pl
      • Norwegian Bokmål: rune m or f
        • → Norwegian Nynorsk: rune f, runa f
      • → German: Rune f
        • → Dutch: rune
      • → English: rune
        • → Mandarin: 盧恩／卢恩 (lú'ēn)
• → Finnish: runo
  • → Swedish: runa c or f, runo c or f

Further reading

• Terje Spurkland, Norwegian runes and runic inscriptions (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, →ISBN, 2005), pages 42–43[1]