rune

Borrowed from Old Norse rún, which is from Proto-Germanic *rūnō (“letter, literature, secret”), which is borrowed either from Proto-Celtic *rūnā or from the same source as it; compare Dutch rune, German Rune, Raune, Danish rune and Swedish runa. Compare roun.

"code point"

Suggested by Ken Thompson for use in Plan 9.^[1]

• enPR: ro͞on, IPA^(key): /ɹuːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

rune (plural runes)

1. A letter, or character, used in the written language of various ancient Germanic peoples, especially the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons.
   • 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 14:

     Yet they made for man those mystic swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs.

   • 1970, Richard Hamer, editor, A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, Croydon: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 76:

     Runes were the letters of an ancient Germanic alphabet, ultimately derived from the Mediterranean alphabets, which was used for carving on wood or stone and which to some extent survived the introduction of writing.

   • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 32:

     "Finding you somewhere to live isn't going to be easy," he said. "We must cast the runes," said Catweazle. "They will tell us."

2. Any visually similar script, such as Hungarian runes (the Old Hungarian script) or Turkic runes (the Old Turkic script).
3. A Finnic or Scandinavian epic poem, or a division of one, especially a division of the Kalevala.
4. A letter or mark used as a mystical or magic symbol.
   • 2016, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3242: The Dunkelest Brau:

     "Are the, um, eldritch runes supposed to glow like that?" "Dunno. I asked the distributor about 'em and he started shaking really fast like in a Tool video."

5. A verse or song, especially one with mystical or mysterious overtones; a spell or an incantation.
   • 1895, Louis Wain, "Owls" (in Illustrated London News summer number 1895, page 28)

     Where the daylight peeps thro' like the glint of the Moon, / And the branches are rustling a murmurous rune, / The Owls sit in council like prophets of Fate, / Discussing grave questions of Kingdom and State.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 15:

     the fiddle sang and sang as ceaselessly as the chanting cicada without, and the frogs intoning their sylvan runes by the waterside.

6. (obsolete) Alternative form of roun (“secret or mystery”).
7. (programming, in the Go programming language) A Unicode code point.
   • 2016, Shiju Varghese, Go Recipes, Apress, →ISBN, page 12:

     Go language defines the type rune as an alias for the type int32 to represent a Unicode code point. A string in Go is a sequence of runes.

• → Mandarin: 盧恩 / 卢恩 (lú'ēn)

• Nuer, Uren, neur-, urne

rune c (singular definite runen, plural indefinite runer)

1. rune

• “rune” in Den Danske Ordbog

Borrowed from German Rune, from Old Norse rún.

• IPA^(key): /ˈrynə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ru‧ne
• Rhymes: -ynə

rune f (plural runen, diminutive runetje n)

1. rune

• uren
• urne

Borrowed from Old Norse rún.

• IPA^(key): /ʁyn/
• Rhymes: -yn

rune f (plural runes)

1. rune

• runologie

• → Turkish: rün

• “rune”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /ˈru.ne/
• Rhymes: -une
• Hyphenation: rù‧ne

rune f

1. plural of runa

• Nure, nure, urne

From Old Dutch *rūna, from Proto-Germanic *rūnō.

rune f

1. (rare) secretive whispering

• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “rune (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I

From Old Norse rún.

• IPA^(key): /rʉːnə/
• Rhymes: -ʉːnə

rune f or m (definite singular runa or runen, indefinite plural runer, definite plural runene)

1. rune

• “rune” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• uren

Borrowed from Danish rune; likely a reanalysis of Old Norse plural rúnir, whence also runer f pl. Doublet of run.

• IPA^(key): /rʉːnə/

rune f (definite singular runa, indefinite plural runer, definite plural runene)

1. rune (a letter of runic alphabet)

   Synonym: run

• runestav

Related to run (“witchcraft; rune”).

• IPA^(key): /rʊːnə/

rune f (definite singular runa, indefinite plural runer, definite plural runene)

1. an old formula, particularly a verse or a proverb

• “rune” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈruːne/

rūne

1. accusative singular of rūn
2. genitive singular of rūn
3. dative singular of rūn
4. nominative plural of rūn
5. accusative plural of rūn

rune (Cyrillic spelling руне)

1. inflection of runa:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural