riddle
/ˈrɪdəl/noun, verb
A puzzling question, or a perforated sorting screen
From Proto-Germanic *redaz- (Reasoning) + Proto-Indo-European *krey- (Sieve).
Lineage
*redaz-
*krey-
The story
Two different ancient ideas ended up wearing the same English coat. The puzzle sense descends from Old English rædels, a word that could mean “counsel” or “conjecture,” as though solving a riddle were a miniature act of judgment; its final -s was eventually mistaken for a plural ending and dropped. The sieve sense is entirely separate: Old English hriddel named a tool shaken to sort grain, gravel, or other material, from the Proto-Indo-European root *krey-, also linked with words for being clean or pure. By the early 13th century, English had already recorded the puzzle word, while the “anything perplexing” sense appeared by the late 14th century. So a riddle can be something you solve with your mind—or something you shake to separate the useful from the useless.
Modern usage
A puzzle-like question-and-answer phrase, commonly used in games or cartoons
- Heard in
- games · cartoons