Reading as harvesting

Translation:

Reading as harvesting

The word 'leer' (to read) derives from the Latin legere, which means 'to gather, to collect, to harvest'. This is because it was formerly associated with “picking out words”.

Legere, in turn, is a word related to lignum, “that which is gathered to make fire”, from which the word 'leña' (firewood) derives (3).

With the word leer (to read) are connected lesson, choice, intelligence, religion. And as a verb it goes beyond the reading of a piece of writing, as it can be spoken of reading the eyes, the thoughts, the stars, the time, the lines of the hand, reading the weather, the future, the stains on coffee, a CD and a DVD.

*3. In German, legere is related to the word lesen, which originally meant “to select, to put together”. In English a word read is used, which is not related to the German lesen but to raten, which means “to advise” and also “to guess”, because of the reading of the runes.

Alfredo Mires

en: La dignidad de los pueblos también se escribe leyendo (The dignity of the people is also written by reading)

Notes on the promotion of reading in rural areas