To move swiftly on foot; to go quickly by moving the legs more rapidly than at a walk.
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Old Englishbefore 900 CEwell-attested
From OldEnglish 'rinnan' (to flow, to run) and its causative 'ærnan, iernan' (to cause to run, to ride), from Proto-Germanic *rinnaną (to flow, to run), from PIE *h₃reyH- (to flow, to move, to set in motion). The original primary sense was 'to flow' — applied to water, liquids, and rivers — and the meaning 'to move quickly on foot' developed secondarily within Germanic. Old Norse 'rinna' reinforced theword
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The word 'run' holds the record for the most definitions of any single word in the Oxford EnglishDictionary, with over 645 distinct senses — more than 'set,' 'go,' or 'take.'
it one of the most polysemous words in English. Senses range from physical motion to machine operation ('run a program'), to textile damage ('a run in stockings'), to musical sequences ('a run of notes'), each extending the core metaphor of continuous forward movement.' Key roots: *h₃reyH- (Proto-Indo-European: "to flow, to move").