{"id":2063,"date":"2022-07-16T13:18:35","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T13:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=2063"},"modified":"2022-07-17T12:49:27","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T12:49:27","slug":"adventures-in-etymology-riddles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?p=2063","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Etymology &#8211; Riddles"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Riddles\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2022-07-16T13:18:35+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"Today we\u2019re uncovering the mysterious and puzzling origins of the word riddle.\n\n\n\nA riddle [\u02c8\u0279\u026ad\u0259l] is:\n\n \tA verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.\n\nTo riddle is:\n\n \tTo speak ambiguously or enigmatically.\n \tTo solve, answ...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1164\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2063-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=2063-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"riddle.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>Today we\u2019re uncovering the mysterious and puzzling origins of the word <strong>riddle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/yours_truly\/7066735251\/in\/photolist-bLsSbX-3PYarS-3bzEpm-ANF7U-LpCvp-bqQ4Jq-2iXHXF8-5jLLgR-ETU6-rup9B-nnBTbi-3quwQ-8J3NiA-86z9Fh-by8HSB-9x2J7-2m24RQV-88iw5D-nJQJkk-riLkvp-4xu8iQ-aQppYa-HQB4-8GY4Ms-4Gn64R-Fzh3R-7uDCrx-ytmn-FdFpQ-dPcEEP-dXofha-8rHPV6-PB3Kk9-hK5rW-4dVe4f-dWEVC2-FdFrw-8DXNCs-fbMza-rgyDJu-9ykx7-aBrem-5UjAa3-dQQumb-6vP7Fz-2k4KFd1-2jw8V52-2k4uKcz-2np5qjC-2ntx6qZ\" title=\"Puzzled\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7233\/7066735251_4d198880b6_z.jpg\" alt=\"Puzzled\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A <strong>riddle<\/strong> [\u02c8\u0279\u026ad\u0259l] is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To <strong>riddle<\/strong> is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.<\/li>\n<li>To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from the Middle English <strong>r\u0113dels<\/strong> (riddle, problem, enigma), from the Old English <em>r\u01e3dels<\/em> [\u02c8r\u00e6\u02d0.de\u026bs] (guess, conjecture, counsel, debate, enigma, riddle), from the Proto-West-Germanic <em>*r\u0101disl\u012b<\/em> (advice, guess, riddle, puzzle), from <em>*r\u0101dan<\/em> (to advise, guess, interpret),  from the Proto-Germanic <em>*r\u0113dan\u0105<\/em> [\u02c8r\u025b\u02d0.\u00f0\u0251.n\u0251\u0303] (to decide, advise), from the PIE <em>*Hreh\u2081d\u02b0-<\/em> (to think, arrange) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/riddle#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The English word <strong>read<\/strong> comes from the Germanic root, as do the Dutch words <strong>raadsel<\/strong> (riddle, mystery) and <strong>raden<\/strong> (to guess), the German words <strong>R\u00e4tsel<\/strong> (riddle, puzzle, mystery) and <strong>raten<\/strong> (to advise, recommend, guess), and the Swedish word <strong>r\u00e5da<\/strong> (to advise, rule, reign, occur, exist) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic\/r%C4%93dan%C4%85\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>riddle<\/strong>, as in a kind of sieve, usually made of wire, comes from different roots: from the Middle English <em>ridel<\/em> (coarse sieve), from the Old English <em>hriddel<\/em> (sieve), from the Proto-West Germanic <em>*hr\u012bdr\u0101<\/em> (sieve), from the Proto-Germanic <em>*hr\u012bdr\u01ed<\/em> [\u02c8xri\u02d0\u00f0.r\u0254\u0303\u02d0] (sieve), from <em>*hrid-<\/em> (to shake), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*krey-<\/em> (to sift, separate, divide) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/riddle#Etymology_2\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Words from the same roots include <strong>crime<\/strong>, <strong>crisis<\/strong>, <strong>critic<\/strong> and <strong>secret<\/strong> in English, <strong>Reiter<\/strong> [\u02c8\u0281a\u026a\u032ft\u0250] (rider, mounted man-at-arms) in German, and <strong>crynu<\/strong> (to tremble, quake, shiver) and <strong>crwydr<\/strong> (sieve, winnowing-fan, wandering, roaming) in Welsh [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/krey-\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2022\/07\/15\/sieving-riddles\/\">More details about sieve-related words in Celtic languages on the Celtiadur<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uQSZoqLndDs\">video<\/a> I made of this information:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uQSZoqLndDs\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Video made with <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/37vAg5P\">Doodly<\/a> [afflilate link].<\/p>\n<p>I also write about words, etymology and other language-related topics on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/\">Omniglot Blog<\/a>, and I explore etymological connections between Celtic languages on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/\">Celtiadur<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/id1432641094\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/8b1b1d1b-b39e-4277-b28d-479a3b5043b3\/radio-omniglot\">Amazon Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\">Stitcher<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/podcasts\/Education-Podcasts\/Radio-Omniglot-p1154145\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podchaser.com\/podcasts\/radio-omniglot-716327\">Podchaser<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/player.fm\/series\/radio-omniglot\">PlayerFM<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/podtail.com\/da\/podcast\/radio-omniglot\/\">podtail<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you would like to support this podcast, you can make a donation via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/uk\/cgi-bin\/webscr?cmd=_flow&amp;SESSION=aLjPfXL-vP_1gQ_U23Iz8_hSWLlhzLHPMFZrt32dIEfG8htoNFLYaPoWkv8&amp;dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8def8934b92a630e40b7fef61ab7e9fe63\">PayPal<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/omniglot\">Patreon<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/donations.htm\">contribute to Omniglot in other ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/AudioObject\"><meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Adventures in Etymology &amp;#8211; Riddles\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2022-07-16T13:18:35+00:00\" \/><meta itemprop=\"encodingFormat\" content=\"audio\/mpeg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"Today we\u2019re uncovering the mysterious and puzzling origins of the word riddle.\n\n\n\nA riddle [\u02c8\u0279\u026ad\u0259l] is:\n\n \tA verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.\n\nTo riddle is:\n\n \tTo speak ambiguously or enigmatically.\n \tTo solve, answ...\" \/><meta itemprop=\"contentUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" \/><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1165\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2063-2\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3?_=2\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/?powerpress_pinw=2063-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/radio_omniglot\/www.omniglot.com\/soundfiles\/etymology\/riddle.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"riddle.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p>Today we\u2019re uncovering the mysterious and puzzling origins of the word riddle. A riddle [\u02c8\u0279\u026ad\u0259l] is: A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature. To riddle is: To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question. It comes from the Middle English r\u0113dels (riddle, problem, enigma), from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,47,20,56,24,4,58,55,1,57,59,119,30,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-etymology","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-german","category-language","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-podcast","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-proto-west-germanic","category-swedish","category-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2063"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2072,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2063\/revisions\/2072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/radio\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}