Etymology: < the name of the river Rhine, a major river of western Europe, which rises in the Alps and flows through or beside parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, and the Netherlands before flowing into the North Sea. Forms of the name in the languages of countries along its route include German Rhein (Old High German Rīn , Hrīn , Middle High German Rīn ), French Rhin (Anglo-Norman and Old French Rin , Middle French Rhin , Rin ), Dutch Rijn (Middle Dutch Rijn , Rīn ); compare also classical Latin Rhēnus (also Rhēnum ; apparently < Celtic; the orthographic influence of the Latin form is reflected by spellings with Rh- in German and French as well as English). The river name probably ultimately shows a formation < the same Indo-European base as run v. In its Germanic form it is frequently assumed to be an early borrowing from Celtic, but this theory poses phonological difficulties with regard to the stem vowel (see discussion by S. Zimmer in J. Hoops's Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde (ed. 2, 2003) XXIV. 525). There are numerous names of other smaller rivers in western Europe which are very similar in form and probably show the same origin.Rhine occurs as a place name in English contexts from Old English onwards (in various forms, including Old English Rin , Middle English and early modern English Rine , Ryne , early modern English Rhin , Rhine , Rhyne ; also Middle English and early modern English Rhenus , Renus , Rene , Middle English Reyn , Ruyn , early modern English Rhene ). With Rhine wine at Compounds 1 compare Anglo-Norman vyn de Ryne and Middle French vin de Rin (c1400), Middle French, French vin du Rhin (15th cent.), post-classical Latin vinum del Ryne (1359 in a British source).

Etymology: < rein- in German Reinhanf, literally ‘clean hemp’, but in forms in rh- (and probably also in other forms) apprehended as showing the name of the river Rhine (German Rhein : see Rhine n.¹); the same association is reflected in German by the spelling Rheinhanf.

Etymology: Origin uncertain, as is the quality of the stem vowel. The forms rhine , rhyne perhaps simply show a spelling variant of rean n.; F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. (1886) 624 comments that ‘the wide open drains are all written rhine and pronounced ree·n’, and a similar comment occurs in G. E. Dartnell and E. H. Goddard Gloss. Words Wilts. (1893) 132, and in other later sources. However, this would not account for the forms royne , rhoyne . Perhaps a variant of rune n.¹ (compare rune n.¹ 3), although this would also make the development of the vowel difficult to account for.For a suggestion that the forms in rh- reflect attempts to render aspirated r see Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries 35 (2004) 376–7.