Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or written in runes.
  • noun The Germanic language of the oldest runic inscriptions from northern Europe, dating to between the third and sixth centuries AD, and considered by some to be close to or identical with the putative common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to, consisting in, or characteristic of runes.
  • Inscribed with runes.
  • Resembling in style the work of the early civilization of the north of Europe.
  • noun A distinctive style of printing-type.
  • noun These types are of RUNIC face.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a rune, to runes, or to the Norsemen.
  • adjective See Clog almanac, under Clog.
  • adjective a willow wand bearing runes, formerly thought to have been used by the heathen tribes of Northern Europe in magical ceremonies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or written using runes

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or consisting of runes

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The letters used in old Icelandic and similar languages are called runic characters.

    The Story of Sigurd the Volsung William Morris 1865

  • I'm not advocating necessarily getting rid of them entirely, but make it so that they can't sell stuff from champion mob drops, among other things. such as runic items in particular, which tend to go for ridiculous amounts of gold There should be a list of stuff which player-run vendors can and can't sell.

    A Shot Across the Bow 2005

  • The ancient Slavonic when reduced to writing seems to have been originally written with a kind of runic letters, which, when formed into a regular alphabet, were called the Glagolitic, that is the signs which spoke.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913

  • On one side was etched the complete, sixteen-character short-twig runic alphabet or futhark, the style of which dates it to the earliest Norse settlements.

    Judith Lindbergh - An interview with author 2010

  • My study of the Elder Futhark has been eclectic, though I approach them from the old Icelandic and Norse runic poems as interpreted by Kate MacDowell.

    Kelley Harrell: Harry Potter and the Elder Futhark Kelley Harrell 2011

  • The pattern of blue-green algae and the numinous wings of the Great Nebula in Orion and the runic scrawl of human chromosomes are stories.

    Lindsay Edmunds: Russell Hoban: A Great American Writer Lindsay Edmunds 2011

  • My study of the Elder Futhark has been eclectic, though I approach them from the old Icelandic and Norse runic poems as interpreted by Kate MacDowell.

    Kelley Harrell: Harry Potter and the Elder Futhark Kelley Harrell 2011

  • The pattern of blue-green algae and the numinous wings of the Great Nebula in Orion and the runic scrawl of human chromosomes are stories.

    Lindsay Edmunds: Russell Hoban: A Great American Writer Lindsay Edmunds 2011

  • The heart, the head, the life and the fate were all crucial concepts to her, just they didn't give up their runic braille quite as easily as the digital phrenologists claimed.

    Death Masking Love 2010

  • Tessa learned from the Codex that all Shadowhunters descended from an archangel named Raziel, who had given the first of them a volume called the Gray Book, filled with “the language of Heaven”—the black runic Marks that covered the skin of trained Shadowhunters such as Charlotte and Will.

    Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare 2010

Comments

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  • 1. consisting of or set down in runes: "runic inscriptions"

    2. having some secret or mysterious meaning: "runic rhyme"

    August 28, 2007