reed

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites
  2. noun United States journalist who reported on the October Revolution from Petrograd in 1917; founded the Communist Labor Party in America in 1919; is buried in the Kremlin in Moscow (1887-1920)
  3. noun United States physician who proved that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes (1851-1902)

Etymology

From Middle English red, reed, from Old English hrēod, from Proto-West Germanic *hreud, of uncertain origin. Akin to Saterland Frisian Rait (“reed”), West Frisian reid (“reed”), Dutch riet (“reed”), German Ried (“reed”). No cognates in North Germanic languages, but the existence of an otherwise unattested Gothic *𐌷𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌳 (*hriud) was supposed by the brothers Grimm. They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius). The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.

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