rune
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: ro͞on
ipa: /ɹuːn/
rhymes: -uːn
Forms: form: runes
Etymology: Borrowed from Old Norse rún, which is from Proto-Germanic *rūnō (“letter, literature, secret”), which is borrowed either from Proto-Celtic *rūnā or from the same source as it; compare Dutch rune, German Rune, Raune, Danish rune and Swedish runa. Compare roun.
; Finnic epic poem
; "code point"
Senses: examples: text: Yet they made for man those mystic swords of superhuman workmanship engraved with magic runes and dipped when red hot in blood or in a broth of poisonous herbs and twigs.
ref: 1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 14:
text: Runes were the letters of an ancient Germanic alphabet, ultimately derived from the Mediterranean alphabets, which was used for carving on wood or stone and which to some extent survived the introduction of writing.
ref: 1970, Richard Hamer, editor, A Choice of Anglo-Saxon Verse, Croydon: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 76:
glosses: A letter, or character, used in the written language of various ancient Germanic peoples, especially the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons.
glosses: Any visually similar script, such as Hungarian runes (the Old Hungarian script) or Turkic runes (the Old Turkic script).
glosses: A Finnic or Scandinavian epic poem, or a division of one, especially a division of the Kalevala.
examples: text: And the sword that had visited Earth from so far away smote like the falling of thunderbolts [...] and the runes in Alveric’s far-travelled sword exulted, and roared at the elf-knight; until in the dark of the wood, amongst branches severed from disenchanted trees, with a blow like that of a thunderbolt riving an oak-tree, Alveric slew him.
ref: 1924, Lord Dunsany, chapter III, in The King of Elfland's Daughter, New York: G.P. Puttnam's Sons, page 30:
text: "Finding you somewhere to live isn't going to be easy," he said. "We must cast the runes," said Catweazle. "They will tell us."
ref: 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 32:
text: "Are the, um, eldritch runes supposed to glow like that?" "Dunno. I asked the distributor about 'em and he started shaking really fast like in a Tool video."
ref: 2016, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content (webcomic), Number 3242: The Dunkelest Brau:
glosses: A letter or mark used as a mystical or magic symbol.
examples: text: Where the daylight peeps thro' like the glint of the Moon, / And the branches are rustling a murmurous rune, / The Owls sit in council like prophets of Fate, / Discussing grave questions of Kingdom and State.
ref: 1895, Louis Wain, "Owls" (in Illustrated London News summer number 1895, page 28)
text: the fiddle sang and sang as ceaselessly as the chanting cicada without, and the frogs intoning their sylvan runes by the waterside.
ref: 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 15:
glosses: A verse or song, especially one with mystical or mysterious overtones; a spell or an incantation.
glosses: Alternative form of roun (“secret or mystery”).
examples: text: Go language defines the type rune as an alias for the type int32 to represent a Unicode code point. A string in Go is a sequence of runes.
ref: 2016, Shiju Varghese, Go Recipes, Apress, →ISBN, page 12:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A Unicode code point.
raw_tags: in the Go programming language
Derived terms: bind rune
moonrune
moon rune
rune bag
rune book
runecarver
runecast
runecaster
runecasting
rune cloth
runecraft
runed
runeless
runelike
runelore
runemaster
rune poem
rune-rister
rune-risting
runesmith
runesong
rune spread
runestaff
runestave
runester
runestone
runework
runic
runically
runiform
runographer
runographic
runography
runologist
runology
twig rune