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Chambers (1908)

Rune

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. rún, a secret. The word is found in M. E. rounen, to whisper, and is cog. with Old High Ger. runa, a secret, Goth. runa, secret.]

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The complete extracted entry

e-38699-7058

Historical source text, not a reviewed *SET-U analysis. Claims and terminology belong to this edition.

Rune, rōōn, n. one of the characters or letters used by the peoples of northern Europe down to the 16th century: (pl.) the ancient Scandinavian alphabet or futhorc—from its first six letters f, u, th, o, r, c (the writing is called Runic, the individual letters Rune-staves, or less correctly Runes): a secret, a mystic sentence: any song mystically expressed.—n. Rune′craft.—adj. Runed.—n. Ru′ner.—adj. Ru′nic, relating to runes, to the ancient Teutonic nations, or to their characters.—ns. Runol′ogist, one versed in Runic remains; Runol′ogy.—Runic knots, a form of interlaced ornament. [A.S. rún, a secret. The word is found in M. E. rounen, to whisper, and is cog. with Old High Ger. runa, a secret, Goth. runa, secret.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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