English

read

/ɹiːd/
To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.

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    Origin

    From Middle English reden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“advise, counsel”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to arrange”).

    Cognate with Scots rede, red (“to advise, counsel, decipher, read”), Saterland Frisian räide (“to advise, counsel”), West Frisian riede (“to advise, counsel”), Dutch raden (“to advise; guess”), German raten (“to advise; guess”), Danish råde (“to advise”), Swedish råda (“to advise, counsel”), Persian رده (rade, “to order, to arrange, class”). In West Germanic the verb had a sense “interpret”, which developed further into “interpret letters” in English and “interpret by intuition, guess” on the continent. Compare rede.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • rootProto-Indo-European*h₂er- “to fit, put together”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*Hreh₁dʰ- “to arrange”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishreden “to arrange; to get ready, prepare; to put in order, tidy; to remove debris, obstructions, etc., fro…”
      • inheritedOld Englishrǣdan “to counsel, advise, consult; interpret, read”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*rādan
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*rēdaną “advise, counsel”

    Related: Scots rede, Saterland Frisian räide, West Frisian riede, Dutch raden, German raten, Danish råde, Swedish råda, Persian رده

    Words built on it: read-in, read-only, must-read, read-through

    Sources