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Word of Random

riddle

riddle: [OE] English has two separate words riddle. The ‘puzzling’ sort of riddle is etymologically something you ‘read’. For it originated as a derivative of Old English rǣdan, the ancestor of modern English read. One of its earlier meanings was ‘interpret’ – hence riddle. Riddle ‘sieve’ goes back to a prehistoric German khrid- ‘shake’, which also produced German dialect reiter ‘sieve’. It is also related to Latin crībrum ‘sieve’ and cernere ‘separate’ (source of English decree, discern, secret, etc).
=> read; certain, decree, discern, secret