Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Runo revisited: borrowing and semantic development
List of Authors: Kendra Willson
Place: Helsinki
Publication year: 2019
Journal: RMN Newsletter
Volume number: 14
Start page: 77
End page: 90
URL: https://www.helsinki.fi/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rmn_14_methodologies.pdf#page=77
The Finnish and Karelian word runo [‘poem’] has been viewed as
reflecting a loan from Proto-Germanic *rūnō, the ancestor of Old Norse
rún [‘rune’]. However, given its limited distribution in Finnic and the
meanings attested in Germanic and Finnic languages, the word was more
likely borrowed at a later stage, from Early Norse near the start of the
Viking Age, probably in the meaning of ‘incantation, verbal charm’ and
in connection with incantational magic.