Read a bit of ancient Etruscan (4)
I believe the answer is:
scan
'read' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'a bit of ancient etruscan' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scan that I've seen before include "MRI or CAT say" , "Scrutinise; glance over" , "Type of examination" , "Traverse with a detector" , "Convert (a document) to a digital form" .)