DictionaryAI

rede

SayREED/ɹid/

Verbredes, reding, red

6 meanings of rede

Practice

  1. 1
    nounarchaicuncountable
    Help, advice, or counsel offered to another.
    ‘Yet do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unknown. Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun.’
    1954, JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers
    When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to be his friend and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede"
    1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor
    Note

    Ophelia's warning in Hamlet is where most readers meet it: the preacher who "recks not his own rede" ignores his own advice. Burton's 1885 translation has "Right is thy rede," and Tolkien still reaches for it in The Two Towers (1954).

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Ophelia warns her brother against resembling a preacher who disregards his own advice; the quoted wording is accurate. folger.edu
    • Burton's translation first appeared in 1885. en.wikipedia.org
    • Burton's translation contains "Right is thy rede". gutenberg.org
    • Tolkien uses rede in The Two Towers. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Two Towers was first published in 1954. tolkienestate.com
  2. 2
    verbarchaicUKtransitive
    To give advice or counsel to someone.
    But let me rede you, marry not.
    1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Dead Spy”
    Note

    The object is the person advised, and the advice can follow it directly. Stevenson's The Black Arrow (1883) has "But let me rede you, marry not," with no to or that between them. The usage reaches back at least to Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485).

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The quoted construction places the person advised after rede and follows it directly with the advice, without to or that. gutenberg.org
    • Under the requested first-book-edition dating convention, use 1888. The story was first serialized in 1883. en.wikisource.org
    • The Black Arrow contains the exact quoted words without to or that. gutenberg.org
    • Malory's Le Morte Darthur contains rede meaning to advise. gutenberg.org
    • Le Morte Darthur was first published in 1485. gutenberg.org
  3. 3
    nounarchaicuncountable
    A decision or settled plan arrived at through deliberation.
    Note

    The step from counsel offered to a settled plan is a short one: what a council advises becomes what it resolves. In older writing, context does the separating. A rede that someone follows or rejects is advice, while a rede that stands or is carried out is a decision.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Historically, rede could mean either counsel or a decision or plan. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    verbarchaicUKtransitive
    To interpret a riddle or dream; to explain its meaning.
    The secret of Man's Being is still like the Sphinx's secret: a riddle that he cannot rede.
    1836, Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
    Note

    Here the verb comes closest to its relative read, since Old English rǣdan already meant "read, explain" alongside counsel and rule. The objects are things that resist plain understanding, such as riddles, dreams and signs. Carlyle uses it this way in Sartor Resartus (serialized 1833 to 1834), where his philosopher Teufelsdröckh calls the secret of Man's Being "a riddle that he cannot rede."

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  2. 5
    verbarchaicUKtransitive
    To discuss or deliberate over a matter.
  3. 6
    verbarchaicUKtransitive
    To govern and protect; to rule over a people or land.

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Origins

Meanings 1, 3

Proto-Germanic *rēdaz gave Proto-West Germanic *rād, which became Old English rǣd and then Middle English red or rede. Cognates include German Rat, Dutch raad, Danish råd, and Swedish råd, and among more distant Indo-European relatives is rádaid, an Old Irish verb meaning "to speak, say, tell." Rada is a doublet.

Meanings 2, 4–6

Proto-Germanic *rēdaną led to Proto-West Germanic *rādan and then Old English rǣdan, a verb with meanings such as "to counsel, advise," "to plot, design," "to rule, govern," "to determine, decide," and "to read, explain." It became Middle English reden or ræden. German raten, Low German raden, and Dutch raden are cognates, and read is related.