Middle English; earliest use found in Havelok. From Anglo-Norman rouncie, runci, runcin, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French roncin, Old French ronci, (Picardy) ronsi horse used for carrying burdens from post-classical Latin runcinus, further etymology uncertain and disputed: see Französisches etymol. Wörterbuch at *runcinus. Compare Old Occitan roci, rossin, roncin, etc., Catalan rocí, Spanish rocín, Portuguese rocim, and (from French) Italian ronzino. Since the French (and in general the Romance) nouns all denote a horse which is robust and used for carrying burdens, or (less usually) an old and decrepit horse, the English word apparently shows semantic amelioration, with which compare Middle Dutch runsine, (probably with suffix substitution) ronside, rosside, etc., Middle Low German runtsīt, Middle High German runzīt, all in sense ‘battle horse, charger’ (all from French); compare also Welsh rhwnsi, rownsi, etc.