Reddit (English)
Where does "Reddit" come from?
The name Reddit was coined in 2005 for the social media platform as a clever play on the phrase "read it." By using the past-tense spelling of "read," the founders created a clever pun implying that users have already seen the curated content posted on the site.
Full etymology tree
- Reddit (English), 'An American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website.'
- compound read (English), 'To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.'
- inherited reden (Middle English), 'to counsel, advise'
- inherited rǣdan (Old English), 'to read'
- inherited *rādan (Proto-West Germanic), 'to advise, counsel, help'
- inherited *rēdaną (Proto-Germanic), 'to decide, advise'
- inherited *Hreh₁dʰ- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to think'
- inherited *rēdaną (Proto-Germanic), 'to decide, advise'
- inherited *rādan (Proto-West Germanic), 'to advise, counsel, help'
- inherited rǣdan (Old English), 'to read'
- inherited reden (Middle English), 'to counsel, advise'
- compound it (English), 'The third-person singular neuter personal pronoun used to refer to an inanimate object, abstract entity, or non-human living thing.'
- inherited it (Middle English), 'alternative form of hit (“it”)'
- inherited hit (Old English), 'it'
- inherited *hit (Proto-West Germanic)
- inherited *hit (Proto-Germanic), 'nominative/accusative singular neuter of *hiz'
- inherited *ḱe- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *hit (Proto-Germanic), 'nominative/accusative singular neuter of *hiz'
- inherited *hit (Proto-West Germanic)
- inherited hit (Old English), 'it'
- inherited it (Middle English), 'alternative form of hit (“it”)'
- compound read (English), 'To look at and interpret letters or other information that is written.'
Updated June 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris