'Read' originally meant 'to advise' — it shifted to interpreting text because runes were puzzles needing counsel.
To look at and comprehend the meaning of written or printed matter by interpreting its characters or symbols.
From Old English 'rǣdan' meaning 'to advise, counsel, interpret, guess,' from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną (to advise, counsel), from PIE root *h₁reh₁dʰ- meaning 'to reason, count.' The word originally meant 'to counsel or interpret' — not to decode letters on a page. The shift to 'interpret written symbols' happened because runes and texts were seen as things to be interpreted or deciphered, requiring the same kind of wise judgment as giving counsel. Key roots: *h₁reh₁dʰ- (Proto-Indo-European: "to reason, count