Although run may seem like an average word, it has developed over six hundred distinct meanings despite only consisting of three letters (“Run,” Dictionary.com). Not only does run have a plethora of definitions, but the word also has various well-known phrases and is mentioned in numerous forms of literature. With its origin rooted in Old English, the word run has meanings that have changed over time. Run appears in the Bible, in Shakespeare’s work, and in multiple other literary works. This word has also been used by George Bernard Shaw as well as appearing in the magazine Issues & Controversies.
The origins of the word run can be traced back to Old English as well as Old Norse. Although initially a noun, run also developed into a verb from the merging of two related
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Run first appears in print in Mankind, which was published in 1450. The specific mention is in the line, “I was twychyde by þe neke; . . þe halter brast a sondre; . . The halff ys a bowte my neke; we hade a nere rune” (“Run,” OED).
Associated with copious amounts of definitions, run originally meant, “A single act or spell of running; a narrow escape, a close shave” (“Run,” OED). Over the course of history, the meanings of run have changed incredibly. The most common present day run is widely used as a verb and it means, “to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk and in such a manner that for an instant in each step all or both feet are off the ground” (“Run,” Dictionary.com). Other common definitions for run include using the word as an adjective or a verb such as, “to manage, operate, drive,” “melted or liquefied,” “to encounter suddenly or casually,” and,