lleer (Asturian)
Where does "lleer" come from?
The Asturian verb 'lleer' traces its roots back to the Proto-Indo-European base *leǵ-, which originally meant 'to gather' or 'to collect.' Over time, this concept evolved through Latin as 'legere,' where the physical act of gathering objects metaphorically shifted to gathering or selecting words, eventually leading to the sense of reading in Romance languages.
Full etymology tree
- lleer (Asturian), 'to read'
- inherited legere (Latin), 'second-person singular future passive indicative of legō'
- derived lego (Latin), 'to choose, select'
- inherited *legō (Proto-Italic), 'to gather, collect'
- derived *leǵ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to gather, collect, with derivatives meaning to speak by carefully selecting one's words.'
- inherited *legō (Proto-Italic), 'to gather, collect'
- derived lego (Latin), 'to choose, select'
- inherited legere (Latin), 'second-person singular future passive indicative of legō'
Ancestors
- lego (Latin)
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris