eldertongue

Old English · noun

hran

Part of speech
noun, masculine
Declension
strong a-stem
IPA
/xrɑn/
[r̥ɑn]
Syllables
xrɑn (1 syllable)
Modern English
reindeerdelphinidwhale

hran1 · noun · masculine

Senses

  1. a small whale or large delphinid

    (gloss) ballaena

Declension · strong a-stem

Declension of hran
SingularPlural
Nominative hranhranas
Accusative hranhranas
Genitive hraneshrana
Dative hranehranum

hran2 · noun · masculine

Senses

  1. reindeer

    Þā dēor hī hātaþ hrānas...

    They call those animals reindeer...

    late 9th century, translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

Declension · strong a-stem

Declension of hran
SingularPlural
Nominative hrānhrānas
Accusative hrānhrānas
Genitive hrāneshrāna
Dative hrānehrānum

All forms (12)

Etymology

Origin unknown, cf. Épinal Glossary hran (c. 700) and Futhorc (hrónæs) (gen. sg.) on the Franks Casket (early 8th c.). Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *harzaz (“a kind of fish”). Compare Norwegian harr (“grayling”), Swedish harr (“grayling”).

Calque of Old Norse hreinn, as if from Proto-West Germanic *hrain, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hrainaz. At the time, Old Norse and Old English were sufficiently close that the correspondence between ā and ei was transparent, as in words like stān (“stone”) and steinn (“id.”).

Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hran · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution