Runes have unique terminology that can be tricky to understand. Even Casey said he didn’t fully think it through. So, here are the most important terms so you don’t get lost: 
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Rune: An instance of a token. You can think of it as an ERC-20 token contract. The only difference is that a rune’s parameters can’t be changed after it’s been created.

Etching: The action of creating a rune. If we continue the erc-20 comparison, it is similar to deploying a contract.

Premine: The amount of tokens of a rune its creator allocates to themselves.

Terms: The rune’s minting rules. They are set by the etcher. If they are not set, only premined tokens of this rune exist and no more supply can be added.

Minting: Creating a token, open to everyone as long as terms are fulfilled. 

Runestone (not to be confused with Leonidas’ ordinals project): Any transaction that does anything with a rune (etches, mints, transfers, etc.).

Rune ID: A unique number that along with rune name identifies a rune. It is a combination of the block height in which a rune has been etched and the number of a rune etching txn in that block.

Cenotaph: An invalid rune. You only encounter it if you are doing something wrong.