Etymology
Different interpretations of the etymology of this word revolve around its relationship with the formally and semantically very close ME
renish- (also known mainly from alliterative poetry). (1)
Runisch could be taken as a variant of this word, since <u> and <e> spellings can both reflect late OE /e:o/ (so
OED, Sundén 1929: 47-55, TG, TGD) and two plausible sources have been suggested: (a) an ON adj. represented by OIcel
hrjónn ‘rough’ (cp. Norw
rjone (
rjøne) ‘swollen or scabby bump on the skin’). The ulterior etymology is obscure; these words have sometimes been related to OIcel
hraun ‘rough place, wilderness’ (so Heid., Mag.; see
ronez) and further to a set of words perhaps to be referred to the same PIE root, inc. OIcel
hrúðr ‘a crust, scab on a sore’. (b) OE
hrēoh (variant
hrēow) ‘rough, fierce, wild, angry; disturbed, troubled, sad; stormy, tempestuous’ is similarly difficult to trace etymologically; the only direct cognate seems to be OS
hrēo (Heid. tentatively relates it to either OIcel
hrjónn or PGmc
*hrewwa-). Sundén acounts for final
-n in ME
by suggesting an immediate origin for
run- in the OE nom. derivative
hrēones (<
*hrēohnes) later perhaps misanalysed as
*hreon-nes and
MED appeals to oblique adjectival forms in
-n. (2) Though these etyma may explain the form of the ME, neither accounts for the sense 'strange, mysterious' which occurs for both ME
runish- and
renish-. It is now more usual, therefore (following Savage 1926, 52n) to derive (wholly or partly) from OE
rūn ‘mystery, secrecy, secret; counsel, consultation; (secret) council’ and ‘runic character, letter; writing’ (cp. Go
rūna ‘secret, mystery, counsel, council’, OIcel
rún ‘secret, hidden lore, mystery’, OS
rūna ‘secret counsel, secret conversation’, MDu
rūne,
ruun,
ruen ‘secret counsel’, OHG
rūna ‘secret’) or its mutated derivative
(ge)rȳne ‘secret, mystery’. It is unlikely, however, to be the source of both
runish- and
renish- (contra Savage, GDS 304n) because it is difficult to obtain ME /e:/ from OE /y:/ outside the SE;
ren- forms are thus better derived as in (1), while acknowledging that the two originally distinct words have influenced each other in sense (thus
MED,
OED3, Hoffmann 1970: 447-9). (3) An earlier favoured alternative (Knigge 79, Maetzner 304n) is to suggest a source in an ON word corresponding to the root of OIcel
hrynja 'to fall to ruin, tumble down; (metaph.) to stream, float (of garments); to stream, pour down (of fluids)' (cp. Icel (n.)
hrun ‘ruin, collapse’, OE
hruna, MLG
rone, OHG
hrono ‘fallen tree-trunk’), but this is less apposite semantically.
PGmc Ancestor
(1) ?*hrewwa-; (2) *rūnō; (3) *xreun-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
(1) hrjónn 'rough'; (3) hrynja ‘to fall to ruin, tumble down; (metaph.) to stream, float (of garments); to stream, pour down (of fluids)’
(ONP (3) hrynja (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(1) Icel hrjón, Norw rjone, rjøne; (3) Icel hrynja, Norw rynja, OSw rynja, Sw dial ryni
OE Cognate
(1) hrēoh, hrēow 'rough, fierce, wild, angry; disturbed, troubled, sad; stormy tempestuous'; (2) rūn (n.) 'mystery, secrecy, secret; councel, consultation; (secret) council' and 'runic character, letter; writing'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
DD1c