read

Pronunciation

• IPA: /riːd/ (present); /rɛd/ (past)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English reden (“to counsel; to read”),^[2][3] inherited from Old English rǣdan (“to advise, counsel; to explain; to read”) (Anglian rēdan),^[4][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *rǣðan.^[5] Its cognates mostly keep the sense “to advise, guess, interpret”: Old Frisian rēda (“to advise”), Old Saxon rādan, Dutch raden (“to advise, guess”), Old High German rātan (modern German raten (“to advise, guess”)), Old Norse ráða (“to advise, plan, explain, read”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌽 (garēdan, “to provide for, consider”).^[6][5][7][8] Hoad and Merriam-Webster compare Sanskrit राध्नोति (rādhnoti, “he achieves, prepares”),^[5][8] and Etymonline gives a root Proto-Indo-European *re- (“to reason, count”).^[2] It is related to Old English rǣd (“advice”) (rede) and to riddle.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To advise, explain, interpret, and to read writing (before 899, in the writings of King Alfred).^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The original Germanic senses were giving and taking advice and managing affairs;^[5] several languages also used the verb for interpreting something obscure, such as a dream or riddle, but only Old English, and Old Norse perhaps under its influence, used it for interpreting written signs.^[5][2] Most other languages built their word for “read” on the idea of gathering, as French lire from Latin legere.^[2][11] The old sense survives in read a riddle and read someone a lesson,^[9] and in the name of Æthelred the Unready, whose epithet meant “ill-advised”, from rede.^[11] Old senses such as “to suppose” and “to guess” were obsolete by the 18th century.^[6] Read one's fortune dates from 1591,^[12] reading a person's character from the 1610s and reading music at sight from 1792.^[2] The adjective read “learned”, now usually well-read, is from 1574 according to Merriam-Webster or 1586 according to the OED.^[8][12] The noun, “an act of reading”, is colloquial from 1825, and a good read is recorded by 1870.^[2] Etymonline cites the Century Dictionary's view that the past tense should be spelled red, as it once was.^[2]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English rǣdan (King Alfred).^[4]
• c. 900 – to think, suppose (obsolete).^[12]
• c. 1000 – to interpret a dream or riddle.^[12]
• c. 1175 – Middle English reden.^[3]
• 1574 – adjective, learned through reading.^[8]
• 1591 – read one's fortune.^[12]
• 1610s – to read a person's character.^[2]
• 1792 – to play music at sight.^[2]
• 1825 – noun, an act of reading.^[2][12]
• 1870 – a good read.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To look at and understand written or printed words.
2. To say aloud something written: read to the children.
3. To be able to understand a language or notation: reads music.
4. To interpret signs or signals: read a map, read lips.
5. Of a text, to have a particular wording: the sign reads “Keep out”.
6. Of an instrument, to show a measurement.
7. To study a subject.

Noun

1. (informal) An act of reading, or something to read: a good read.

Adjective

1. Informed by reading: well read.

Word family

• lipread
• proofread
• readability
• reread
• misread

Related words

• rede
• riddle
• reader
• reading

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b From Abracadabra to Zeus: Word Histories and Mysteries (2004), Boston: Houghton Mifflin (American Heritage Dictionaries)
12. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press