The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*rūnōstabaz
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*rūnustab
- Old English · inherited fromrūnstæf
- Middle English · inherited fromrun-staf
- English todayrunestaff
From Middle English run-staf (attested in the plural as run-staven), from Old English rūnstæf, from Proto-West Germanic *rūnustab, from Proto-Germanic *rūnōstabaz. Cognate with Old High German rūnstab, rūnstafa, Danish runestav, Swedish runstav, Faroese rúnastavur. Compare English bookstaff. By surface analysis, rune + staff.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.