runestone

English

An 11th-century Swedish runestone.

Divination runestones

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Celtic *rūnābor.?

Proto-Germanic *rūnō

Proto-Germanic *rūnǭ

Proto-Norse ᚱᚢᚾᛟ (runo)

Old Norse rúnbor.

English rune

Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-nos

Proto-Indo-European *stóyh₂nos

Proto-Germanic *stainaz

Proto-West Germanic *stain

Old English stān

Middle English ston

English stone

English runestone

From rune +‎ stone.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹunˌstoʊn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

runestone (plural runestones)

1. (archaeology) An ancient monument consisting of a typically raised stone with a runic inscription.
2. A small tile-shaped stone or tablet with a single rune inscribed on it, used for divinatory and esoteric purposes.
   • 2015, Rick Riordan, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Sword of Summer, page 347:

     I clenched the runestone. "He still carries all that pain inside. Gods..."

     Sam laid her hand on Hearth's ankle. "He couldn't tell me the details of how he grew up, but I—I got the feeling it was worse than you can imagine."

     I looked at the rune. "No wonder he daydreamed about working magic. But this symbol...?"

Translations

stone with a runic inscription

• Catalan: pedra rúnica f
• Danish: runesten (da) c
• Dutch: runensteen (nl) m
• Esperanto: runŝtono
• Estonian: ruunikivi
• Finnish: riimukivi (fi)
• French: pierre runique f
• Galician: pedra rúnica f
• German: Runenstein (de) m
• Hebrew: אֶבֶן רוּנוֹת
• Ido: runpetro
• Indonesian: batu Rune
• Italian: pietra runica f
• Lithuanian: runų akmuo m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: runestein m, runesten m

  Nynorsk: runestein m

• Polish: kamień runiczny m
• Portuguese: pedra rúnica f
• Russian: руни́ческий ка́мень m (runíčeskij kámenʹ)
• Spanish: piedra rúnica f (cf. estela rúnica f)
• Swedish: runsten (sv) c
• Ukrainian: руні́чний ка́мінь m (runíčnyj káminʹ)
• Volapük: raunaston