tæcan

Forms

tǣċan (third-person singular present tǣċeþ, past singular tǣhte, past plural tǣhton)^[1] The past is tǣhte or tāhte, the past participle tǣht or tāht.^[2] The Lindisfarne gloss has the past tahte.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *taikijan, from Proto-Germanic *taikijaną (“to show”).^[1] Kroonen records the verb in Old English alone, and explains it as a formation made to the geminated root *taikk- of *taikną (“sign”) (the source of tācn) and of the iterative verb behind Old High German zeigōn (“to show”), all to the root of *tīhaną (“to accuse”).^[5][6] He suggests, with a perhaps, that it continues a medial causative *doyḱ-nH-éye-.^[5] Holthausen and Köbler also put it with this noun.^[7][8]

The root is Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to show”).^[9][1] Wiktionary ascribes the Germanic /k/, where /h/ or /g/ would be expected, to Kluge's law, and names Latin dīcō (“to say”) and Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “to show”) among the cognates.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Pastoral Care of 890×897 (Hatton 20): God told the prophet to take an iron pan and set it between himself and the city as an iron wall, & eft he him tæhte to fultome ðæt he him gename ane iserne hearstepannan “and further he directed him, as a help, to take an iron pan”.^[10][4][11] The Old English Boethius has the first sense “to show”: þeah þu me tæhtest ær þa duru “though you showed me the door before”.^[12][4]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth–Toller arranges the senses from “to show”: to offer to view, to show someone the way or a place, to direct a person somewhere, and so to assign or prescribe.^[13] In the laws it means to show or produce something, such as land or the track of stolen cattle, and to prescribe what must be done.^[14] Beside these it means “to teach, instruct”, glossing Latin doceō, and also indicō and significō.^[8][15]

The sense “to teach” prevailed in Middle English techen, now English teach.^[2][16]

Timeline

• 890×897 – he him tæhte, of God directing the prophet, in the Pastoral Care.^[10][4]
• s. x med. – þu me tæhtest ær þa duru “you showed me the door” in the Old English Boethius.^[12][4]
• s. x² – swa ure scriftas us tæcaþ & læraþ “as our confessors teach and instruct us” in a Vercelli homily.^[17][4]
• s. x³/⁴ – tahte vel becnade glossing significans in the Lindisfarne Gospels gloss.^[3][4]
• s. x ex. – wæs tæcende dæighwomlice binnon þam temple “was teaching daily in the temple” in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies.^[18][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. to show, point out, offer to view.^[13][8]
2. to show someone the way; to direct, guide.^[13][1]
3. to assign, prescribe.^[14][15]
4. to teach, instruct.^[8][1]

Word family

• betǣċan
• ġetǣċan
• mistǣċan

Descendants

• Middle English techen (→ English teach; Scots teich)^[1]

Related words

• tācen
• tǣcnan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 291
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 505
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 506
7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 341
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tǣcan
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tācen
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 720
12. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
13. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 967
14. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 207
15. ^ a b Nerthus: An Online Lexical Database of Old English, Universidad de La Rioja, nerthusproject.com (derivational paradigms, via the Nerthus Project's open data), p. s.v. tǣcan
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 704
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 407