期刊名称：Futhark : International Journal of Runic Studies
电子版ISSN：1892-0950
出版年度：2010
期号：1
页码：109-122
出版社：University of Oslo & Uppsala University
摘要：This article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the name, or rather names, of the u-rune. Úr(r) has usually been viewed as one of the most uncertain rune-names since most or all the main sources seem to indicate different meanings. Ūr in the Old English Rune Poem apparently means ‘aurochs’. The Icelandic Rune Poem identifies úr as meaning ‘precipitation, drizzle’, and concentrates on its negative consequences for crops. Editors have as a rule translated úr in the Norwegian Rune Poem as ‘slag’: “dross comes from bad iron” (Dickins 1915, 25); “Schlacke kommt von schlechtem eisen” (Wimmer 1887, 276). As a starting-point for the analysis of any rune-name, the etymological basis of the “standard” (or traditionally accepted) meaning or meanings ascribed to it is central. Old English ūr ‘aurochs’ comes from Germanic *ūruz and corresponds to Old Norse úrr. This does not appear to have been a common word in Old English or Old Norse. There was, though, a word for ‘ox’ in the Germanic languages: *uhsan- (> Old High German ohso, Old Frisian oxa, Gothic aūhsa, Old Norse uxi/oxi), which combines with ūr in Old High German to form urohso, German Aurochs, whence Modern English aurochs. The Latin term ūrus is a loanword from Germanic.
