Lignum

[marnanel]

Something I never realised before last night:  the Latin word lignum, firewood, means "stuff which was gathered" (lignor, it's deponent), because you have to go out under the trees and pick up bits of wood if you want to light a fire.  Thus words like eligo, I elect, mean literally "I pick out", and hence the English "elect".

And also that this is possibly related to legere, to read, because reading is picking out words from the page, like picking up firewood.

Comments

[pne]

FWIW, German lesen also has both meanings: the more well-known "read" and the lesser-used (these days) "gather, glean, collect" (compare "Weinlese" for "grape harvest", "Ährenlese" for "grain harvest", and "Auslese" for "special selection; cream of the crop). There's also "auflesen" which is specifically "pick up, gather up".