What does raun mean?
Raun is a Scots form of the past tense and past participle of run, used to describe someone or something that has moved swiftly, often away from a particular place. The form is especially associated with Scottish English and appears frequently in dialect writing, poetry, and Scottish literature. For example, “He raun awa' before the storm arrived” uses raun in the sense of “ran away,” with awa' meaning “away.” The word gives modern English a distinctly Scottish flavor while preserving an older form of English word grammar. It can also occur in more formal or literary Scottish prose, rather than being limited to casual speech. For readers encountering it outside Scottish writing, it is most readily understood as the equivalent of standard English “ran.”
verbIn Scots, raun is the simple past tense and past participle of run.
- The past tense and past participle of the Scots verb run.
"He raun awa' before the rain came in."
"She raun down the hill to catch the last train."
"The dog had raun awa' before we reached the farm."
“Raun awa'!” captures the pace of a hurried Scot while preserving an older Scots form of “run.”
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does raun come from?
Raun is the Scots past-tense and past-participle form of run. The English verb run has Germanic ancestry and is generally traced to Old Norse renna, alongside the related Old English rinnan. Scots developed distinct grammatical forms, including raun, as part of its own wider and historically conservative vocabulary.
How raun is actually used
This is a chiefly Scottish form found in Scots usage and Scottish literature. It is not the standard past tense used in most English-speaking regions.
Easily confused with raun
Raun is a Scots past-tense form of run, whereas a rune is a character from an ancient writing system.