The story
- Old Norse · derived fromhrosshvalr“walrus”
- Old French · derived fromroal
- Middle English · borrowed fromrewell bon
- English todayruel-bone
Learned borrowing from Middle English rewell bon, ruel bon (“walrus ivory”), from Old French roal, rohal (“walrus ivory”), ultimately from Old Norse hrosshvalr (“walrus”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.