riddle

Riddle comes from Old English rǣdels, meaning counsel, opinion, or a puzzle, built from rede ("advice") plus a suffix. It's related to Old English rǣdan, "to read, advise, interpret" — the same root behind our word 'read.'

What began as a word for counsel or interpretation narrowed over time into its modern sense: a question or statement designed to be puzzled out.

It's cognate with Dutch raadsel and German Rätsel, both of which still carry the same sense of a puzzle to be worked out through reasoning — much like the 'read' at riddle's core.