There are 59 meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb read , 13 of which are labelled obsolete. Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. View the pronunciation model here. Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.
English Simple Text Respell. Skip to main content. Phrasal verbs. Dictionary Historical Thesaurus. What does the verb read mean? About occurrences per million words in modern written English. See frequency. How is the verb read pronounced? See pronunciation. Earliest known use Old English.
The earliest known use of the verb read is in the Old English period pre It is also recorded as a noun from the Old English period pre See etymology. Old Englishβ read, adj. Old Englishβ readability, n. Summary A word inherited from Germanic. Compare rede v. These senses, now archaic, poetic, or regional, are in modern use usually distinguished in form as rede v.
A comparable archaic or historic use of the spelling rede is occasionally found elsewhere in literary texts see sense IV. In Old Icelandic this sense is modelled on Old English and is now obsolete. A comparable use may have been transferred by the Anglo-Saxons from runic writing to Latin script, whereas in other Germanic languages reflexes of the Germanic base of lease v.
Historically, read v. Campbell Old Eng. The early switch to the weak conjugation in English has been attributed to association with rede v. The two verbs are sometimes regarded as completely merged in Old English. There is no certain evidence for continuity of the strong past tense forms beyond the Old English period.
