Etymology

Two plausible sources have been suggested for this adj.: (1) 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’. (2) 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 in the OE nom. derivative hrēones (<*hrēohnes) later perhaps misanalysed as *hreon-nes and MED appeals to oblique adjectival forms in -n. The sense 'strange, mysterious', as at Cl 96, may indicate influence from an originally separate ME runish- (see further runisch (adj.)). See also renyst (adj.).

PGmc Ancestor

?*hrewwa-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

hrjónn 'rough'
(ONP )

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel hrjón, Norw rjone, rjøne

OE Cognate

hrēoh, hrēow 'rough, fierce, wild, angry; disturbed, troubled, sad; stormy tempestuous'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

DD1c

Attestation

Only attested in ME from Cl and WA by MED and OED3. OED3 further identifies it with MnE Lin. dial rannish, cited by EDD with senses 'rash, giddy, rough; furious, violent'.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

WA 2943

Only in the A MS of WA. TPD (3069n) take the instance at WA 2943 as an adv.

Bibliography