English
readtable
From read + table.
Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₁dʰ- ‘to think, arrange’
…
Proto-Germanic *rēdaną ‘advise’
Proto-West Germanic *rādan ‘to advise’
Old English rǣdan ‘to counsel’
Middle English reden ‘to counsel’
English read
Proto-Italic *taðlā ‘board’
Latin tabula ‘tablet’
Old English tabele ‘board’
Middle English table ‘the top of a table’
English table
Today it means
noun In Lisp and related languages, a data structure specifying how text characters are to be interpreted syntactically.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “readtable”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / readtable