*** Welcome to piglix ***

Ansuz (rune)

Name
"god" "god" "oak" "ash" "god"
Shape Elder Futhark Futhorc Younger Futhark
Runic letter ansuz.svg Runic letter os.svg Runic letter ac.svg Runic letter ansuz.svg Long-branch Oss.svg Short-twig Oss.svg
Unicode
U+16A8
U+16A9
U+16AA
U+16AB
U+16AC
U+16AD
Transliteration a o a æ o
Transcription a o a æ ą, o
IPA [a(ː)] [o(ː)] [ɑ(ː)] [æ(ː)] [ɑ̃], [o(ː)]
Position in rune-row 4 4 25 26 4

Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, . The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism.

The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a (EtruscanA-01.png), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.

In the Norwegian rune poem, óss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, ōs takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as ą to distinguish it from the new ár rune (ᛅ), which continues the jēran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jár (Old Saxon jār).

Since the name of Gothic a.svg a is attested in the Gothic alphabet as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been *ansuz "god", or *ahsam "ear (of wheat)".


...
Wikipedia

...