1 HREINN
1. adj. [Ulf. hrains = καθαρός; A. S. hrân; lost in Engl., except in the verb to rinse; O. H. G. hreini; Germ. rein; Dan.-Swed. ren]:—clean; h. líndúkr, Hom. 138, Fs. 1; hrein klæði, Fms. vi. 207; gott korn ok hreint, Sks. 326; hreint vatn, Gd. 22; h. lögr, Alm. 35; hrein munnlaug, H. E. i. 489; h. mjöll, fresh snow, Rm. 26.
2 HREINN
β. bright; hreinir kyndlar, bright candles, Sól. 69; hreint bál, a bright flame, Lex. Poët.; h. sól, the bright sun, id.; h. ok gagnsær, Hom. (St.) 15. 13; hreint sverð, hrein vápn, Fms. x. 360, Rétt. 120; h. rönd, a bright shield, Lex. Poët.
3 HREINN
γ. eccl., hrein kvikendi, clean beasts, Hom. 29.
4 HREINN
II. metaph. clean, pure, sincere; hreint hjarta, h. hugr, hrein iðran, hreint líf, Bs. i. 270, Sól. 7, Barl. 93, N. T., Vídal., Pass. passim.
5 HREINN
β. = Gr. καθαρός in the N. T. of the cleansed leper; ú-hreinn, unclean; tá-hreinn, quite clean.
6 HREINN
2. m. [the word is prob. of Finnish origin. From the words of king Alfred, (þa deor he hâtað hrânas, Orosius i. 1, § 15, Bosworth’s Ed.), it seems that the king knew the name only from Ohthere’s tale; and when Egil in his poem on king Athelstân (if the verse be genuine) calls Northern England hreinbraut, the reindeers’ track, the phrase is prob. merely poët. for a wilderness. There is however a curious passage in Orkn. (448) where the hunting of reindeer in Caithness is recorded; the Icel. text is here only preserved in a single MS.; but though the Danish translation in Stockholm (of the year 1615) has the same reading, it is probably only a mistake of the Saga; for it is not likely that the Norsemen carried reindeer across the sea; the present breed was introduced into Icel. by the government only a century ago]:—a reindeer, Hm. 89, K. Þ. K. 132, Fas. iii. 359; hreins fit, Hkr. ii. 250; hreins horn, Ann. Nord. Old. 1844, 1845, p. 170; hreina hold, Sks. 191. The finest deer were called stál-hreinar (the stæl-hrânas of king Alfred), cp. tálhreinn, Haustl. In northern poetry, ships are freq. called hreinn, see Lex. Poët., byr-hreinn, haf-h., hún-h., unnar-h., hlýrvangs-h., Gylfa-h., all of them meaning ships, Lex. Poët.: a giant is called gnípu-h. = ‘crag-rein,’ Þd.: the wilderness is myrk-rein hreins = the mirk-field of the reindeer, Haustl. Hreinn is an old pr. name, Landn.
7 HREINN
COMPDS: hreinbraut.