Etymology
This is the sole attestation of a vbl. n. derived from ME
rudnen.
It refers to what is
anvnder the
roʒ rakkes (thus Vant simply, and rather unpoetically, glosses 'lightening') when Jonah's ship is assailed by a storm. The v., meaning 'redden' in the context of flushing, is only attested in the KG, and — aside from the -
n- affix — the case for Norse input, as Dance (2003: 94, 400) who rejects it notes, depends on subjective judgements about the likelihood of independent native sense extension. Late OE
rudian 'to be ruddy' (< PGmc
*rud-, cp. OIcel
roða 'to gleam red', OHG
rotēn 'to turn red') is attested once in a homily De Sancto Johanne from CCCC MS 198 ('And him an ræd hiow rudaþ on þam ricge' ) and, with the exception of a variant reading of
PP (where there is possible confusion with
rudden: see
OED3 s.v.
rud and
MED s.v.
ruden), thereafter ME
ruden is always, like
rudnen, attested with the slightly different meaning 'to become red, redden'. Thus Anderson tentatively postulates some influence from ON, cp. OIcel
roðna (v.) 'redden' (see (1a) in the etymological discussion of
roþum), while
OED3 more confidently concludes that the v. (and thus its derivative) is 'probably < early Scandinavian'.
PGmc Ancestor
*rud-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
roðna (v.) 'redden'
(ONP (1a) roðna (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far rodna, Icel roðna, Norw rodna, Sw rodna, Sw dial rudna
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CCC3ac