O.E.
rædan (W.Saxon),
redan (Anglian) "to explain, read, rule, advise" (related to
ræd, red "advice"), from P.Gmc.
*raedanan (cf. O.N.
raða, O.Fris.
reda, Du.
raden, O.H.G.
ratan, Ger.
raten "to advise, counsel, guess"), from PIE base
*rei- "to reason, count" (cf. Skt.
radh- "to succeed, accomplish," Gk.
arithmos "number amount," O.C.S.
raditi "to take thought, attend to," O.Ir.
im-radim "to deliberate, consider"). Connected to
riddle via notion of "interpret." Words from this root in most modern Gmc. languages still mean "counsel, advise." Transference to "understand the meaning of written symbols" is unique to O.E. and (perhaps under Eng. influence) O.N.
raða. Most languages use a word rooted in the idea of "gather up" as their word for "read" (cf. Fr.
lire, from L.
legere). Sense of "make out the character of (a person)" is attested from 1611. The noun meaning "an act of reading" is recorded from 1825.
Read up "study" is from 1842;
read-only in computer jargon is recorded from 1961. O.E.
ræda "advise, counsel" is in the name of Anglo-Saxon king
Æðelræd II (968-1016), lit. "good counsel," and in his epithet
Unræd, usually rendered into Mod.Eng. as
Unready, but really meaning "no-counsel."
Rede "counsel" survived in poetic usage to 17c. An attempted revival by Scott (19c.) failed, though it is used in Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings."
[reed] 