ranishadj.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps < an early Scandinavian base (compare Old Icelandic hrjónn rough (used of flaws in ice), of uncertain origin, perhaps ultimately < the same Indo-European base as raw adj.) + -ish suffix¹. Compare runish adj.¹, which occurs in the same Middle English sources and shows partial semantic overlap with the word; the two words were apparently confused in Middle English, although the difference in the stem vowel makes it unlikely that the one is a variant of the other; see further D. L. Hoffman in Notes & Queries 215 (1970) 447–9, and J. Frankis ‘Word-Formation by Blending in the Vocabulary of Middle English Alliterative Verse’ in E. G. Stanley & D. Gray Five Hundred Years of Words & Sounds (1983) 33. The reason for -a- as the stem vowel in later use (see β. forms) is also unclear; the word was perhaps associated (especially in the sense ‘rash’) with run v. (compare forms with -e- at that entry, and the past tense ran), and perhaps also with English regional (northern) †ran force, violence (first half of the 19th cent.: see Eng. Dial. Dict. at ran sb.⁴; of unknown origin).Compare earlier reigh adj., which is however unlikely as etymon on formal grounds; although Middle Eng. Dict. at rēnish(e tentatively adduces Old English hrēon and hrēone , masculine dative singular and masculine accusative singular of reigh adj., as possible sources of the medial -n- , such influence of Old English inflected forms on a Middle English word seems unlikely. A derivative formation renished ( < ranish adj. + -ed suffix²) is also attested in Middle English:c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 387 Quen he had wroȝt all his will..with a renyst reryd þis reson he said.