rune

英文詞源

rune

rune: [17] Old English had a word rūn, which appears originally to have denoted ‘mystery’, and hence ‘carved or written character with mysterious or magical properties’. This had died out by the end of the Middle Ages, but its Old Norse relative *rún lived on to become modern Swedish runa and Danish rune, and when antiquarian interest in the ancient runic writing system developed in Britain in the 16th century, they were borrowed into English as rune.

rune (n.)

Old English run, rune "secret, mystery, dark mysterious statement, (secret) council," also "a runic letter" (runst?f), from Proto-Germanic *runo (cognates: Old Norse run "a secret, magic sign, runic character," Old High German runa "a secret conversation, whisper," Gothic runa), from PIE *ru-no-, source of technical terms of magic in Germanic and Celtic (cognates: Gaelic run "a secret, mystery, craft, deceit, purpose, intention, desire," Welsh rhin "a secret, charm, virtue"). Also see Runnymede.

The word entered Middle English as roun and by normal evolution would have become Modern English *rown, but it died out mid-15c. when the use of runes did. The modern usage is from late 17c., from German philologists who had reintroduced the word in their writings from a Scandinavian source (such as Danish rune, from Old Norse run). The runic alphabet is believed to have developed by 2c. C.E. from contact with Greek writing, with the letters modified to be more easily cut into wood or stone.