lasīt ogas, sēnes; lasīt nokritušos ābolus; pēcpusdienā puikas lasa nokritušās ozola zīles

to pick berries, mushrooms; to pick the fallen apples; in the afternoon the boys gathered the fallen acorns

prast lasīt un rakstīt, lasīt rakstu žurnālā

to know how to read and write, to read an article in a magazine

Originally the iterative form (with ablaut) of an earlier verb lest, used with respect to birds 'to pick with one's beak'; cf. Lithuanian lèsti, and the related lēst 'to calculate', from Proto-Baltic *les-tei, *lest-ti, from Proto-Indo-European *les- 'to pick, to gather', perhaps derived from the stem *el- 'to bend', via a meaning such as 'to pick (something) while bending down'. The later meaning 'to read' came by analogy to German lesen, itself also influenced by Latin legō. A simultaneous change in case marking also occurred: from lasīt grāmatā burtus 'to pick/read letters in a book' (like lasīt mežā ogas 'to pick berries in the forest') to lasīt grāmatā 'to read in a book' and finally lasīt grāmatu 'to read a book', with the accusative form grāmatu of grāmata 'book'. Cognates include Lithuanian lasýti 'to pick berries, mushrooms', Gothic lisan, Old High German lësan 'to pick up, to gather', German lesen 'to pick (grapes); to read', Hittite lis-, /les- 'to pick (from somewhere)'.