Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rune

Rune (rṳn), n. [AS. rūn a rune, a secret, a mystery; akin to Icel. rūn, OHG. & Goth. rūna a secret, secret colloquy, G. & Dan. rune rune, and probably to Gr. ἐρευνᾶν to search for. Cf. Roun to whisper.] 1. A letter, or character, belonging to the written language of the ancient Norsemen, or Scandinavians; in a wider sense, applied to the letters of the ancient nations of Northern Europe in general.

☞ The Norsemen had a peculiar alphabet, consisting of sixteen letters, or characters, called runes, the origin of which is lost in the remotest antiquity. The signification of the word rune (mystery) seems to allude to the fact that originally only a few were acquainted with the use of these marks, and that they were mostly applied to secret tricks, witchcrafts and enchantments. But the runes were also used in communication by writing.

2. pl. Old Norse poetry expressed in runes.

Runes were upon his tongue, As on the warrior's sword. Longfellow.

Rune stone, a stone bearing a runic inscription.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.