Etymograph

English

run

Run comes from Middle English runnen ‘to run’, an alteration of rinnen, from Old English rinnan ‘to run’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną ‘to run’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃reyH-‘to boil, churn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rinnaną‘to run’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150rinnan‘to run’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rinnen‘to run’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500runnen‘to run’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1603run

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃reyH-‘to boil, churn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*rinnaną‘to run’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150rinnan‘to run’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500rinnen‘to run’
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500runnen‘to run’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1603run

Earliest quotation: 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes: “Neither was he ignorant what report ran of himselfe.”

The story

Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian rend (‘to run, run after’), Persian راندن (rândan, “to move, set in motion”).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- ‘to move, to stir’

original, ride, origin, earn, abortion, orient, abort, irritable, irritate, ornithology, erne, orogeny, 18 more

Today it means

verb To move forward quickly upon two feet by alternately making a short jump off either foot.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- / run

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