Word a Week

Welcome to Word a Week! Let’s dive into the meanings, roots, and uses of words we use everyday, but may not know much about. Words, like anything, have a rich and interesting history that is always moving, changing, and being redefined. Let's learn about the history of what we use everyday –– language!

To Read (to͞o rēd)

Every day, we read something. Whether that’s a street sign or a book, we do read. But this word did not always mean what it does today. In Middle English, to read was ireden, a word to mean “council” or “to advise.” And a close cousin here was “riddle” which meant “to interpret” or “to guess at.” Today, a lot of times we read because we want to be instructed by what the author is saying. But back in the days of Middle English, “to read” was to work with, to interpret, or to reason with. As if a book and the reader were two 50/50 participants in a team effort of finding truth and finding meaning. 

This makes sense when pinning this history against the French word for read, lire. Lire is rooted to “gather up” or “bunch together.” Again, it's a dance of two, like a conversation. The author isn’t the only one gathering up information. Nor is the author the only participant in creating meaning or conclusions about their subject. The author is a gatherer as much as the reader is a gatherer of the author’s words. The author creates and forms ideas just as much as the reader does while staring at the page. “To read” a collaborative, action word!

Say we’re reading a Colleen Hoover novel. We’re participating in a two-person job to imagine the words written on the page, to guess at the meaning as we flip through the chapters, and to understand what the novel is about. Readers are creating as they’re reading. They’re guessing. Their counseling the text. Anything past the page –– our imagined image of the main character or our emotions as we finish a chapter –– that’s all us! Reading is a creative exercise! Our imagination, guesses, and ideas are all elements of our own.

So when we’re reading, maybe we can take more creative license and credit. We can guess at more meanings. We can imagine an elaborate setting. We can be co-creators in a piece of art –– all we need is our imagination and a book.