rhine
/ɹaɪn/ noun, proper noun
Forms rhines the Rhine rean
- noun (UK, dialect) A watercourse; a ditch for water.
- noun A running waterway that links a ditch or stream to a river.
- proper noun A major river in western Europe, which flows through Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, France and the Netherlands, before emptying into the North Sea.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Old English ryne. See run.
From Middle English Rine, Ryne, from Old English Rīn (“the Rhine”), from Middle High German and Old High German Rīn, from Proto-West Germanic *Rīn, from Proto-Germanic *Rīnaz, from Gaulish Rēnos, from a Pre-Celtic or Proto-Celtic *reinos; one of a class of river names built from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH- (“to move, flow, run”).
Cognate with Old High German Rīn ("the Rhine"; > German Rhein), Old Norse Rín (“the Rhine”), Dutch Rijn (“the Rhine”). Related also to Latin rivus ("river"), in Celtic with an -n- suffix as in Old Irish rīan (“run”) (more at run).
The spelling with Rh- is due to the influence of Ancient Greek Ῥῆνος (Rhênos) (via French Rhin).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [AS. ryne. See Run.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rhine”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details