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

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
  • Finnish: runo

Further reading

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