rædan

Forms

rǣdan (strong class 7; third-person singular present rǣtt, past singular rēd, past plural rēdon)^[1] West Saxon rǣdan answers to Kentish rēdan and Northumbrian rēda.^[2] The rare strong past is reord (Anglian) or rēd; the weak past is rǣdde.^[3][4]

Etymology

The verb continues a strong verb “to advise” and a weak verb “to make ready”, which fell together in the present.^[1][3] The strong verb is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (“to advise, to decide”).^[1][2] Its cognates are Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌽 (garedan, “to plan, intend”), Old Norse ráða, Old Frisian rēda, Old Saxon rādan and Old High German rātan.^[5][6] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *Hréh₁dʰ-e-, from a root Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- (“to think, arrange”).^[5][1] The weak verb is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *raidijan, from *raidijaną (“to make ready”).^[1][6] Bosworth–Toller compares Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (garaidjan, “to order, appoint”) and Old High German antreitjan (“to put in order”).^[3]

Proto-Germanic /ē/ became Northwest Germanic /ā/, and this was fronted to West Saxon ⟨ǣ⟩, while Kentish and Northumbrian have ⟨ē⟩.^[2] The Anglian past reord keeps a reduplicated stem *rerōd ~ *rerd-.^[4] In early West Saxon only strong pasts are recorded; late West Saxon made the verb weak.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Pastoral Care of 890×897 (Hatton 20), of people who speculate more than they need and rædað sume leasunge on ðære smeaunge “conceive some falsehood in their speculation”.^[8][9] Toller's Supplement quotes the passage for the sense “to have an idea, suppose”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The oldest senses are those of counsel: to advise, to consult and deliberate, to decide and decree, and to rule or control.^[3][11] In the laws it is to determine or to take counsel about something.^[12] From “to suppose” it came to mean to guess, to solve a riddle, to interpret a dream and to foresee fate, and so to read a book, or read aloud.^[10][13] In glosses it renders Latin legō and lēctitō.^[6]

Both lines of sense went on in Middle English reden: “to read” is now English read, and “to advise” survives as the archaic rede.^[14][15][1]

Timeline

• 890×897 – rædað sume leasunge “conceive some falsehood” in the Pastoral Care.^[8][9]
• s. x in. or xi¹ – þeahtedon & ræddon, hwæt him to donne wære “deliberated and took counsel about what they should do” in the Old English Bede.^[16][9]
• s. x² – mænige Iudeas þæt gewrit ræddon “many Jews read the inscription” in a Vercelli homily.^[17][9]
• s. x² – Næfre gerefan rædað þine eafora yrfe “never shall stewards control your heirs' inheritance” in Genesis A.^[18][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to advise, counsel.^[3][1]
2. to consult, deliberate.^[3][13]
3. to decide, decree.^[3][12][1]
4. to rule, control, possess.^[11][13]
5. to suppose; to guess; to solve a riddle, interpret.^[10][1]
6. to read, read aloud.^[13][6][1]

Word family

• rǣd
• rǣdels
• ārǣdan
• berǣdan
• forrǣdan
• ġerǣdan
• misrǣdan
• oferrǣdan
• ondrǣdan

Descendants

• Middle English reden (→ English read; English rede; Scots rede)^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 149
3. ^ a b c d e f g Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 782
4. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 92
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 408
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. rǣdan
7. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 346
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
9. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 683
11. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. rǣdan
12. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 180
13. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 160
14. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
15. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 531
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 704
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 513