lesson

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈles.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lessoun, lesceun, borrowed from Old French leçon,^[2][3] from Latin lēctiō (“a reading”),^[2][3] a noun of action from legere “to read”,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *leg- (“to collect, gather”).^[2] It is a doublet of lection and related to legend and lecture.^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A portion of the Bible read aloud at a church service: the early 13th century in Etymonline, before 1225 in the OED.^[2][6] Something to be learned by a student is just as early.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

A period of teaching given to a pupil or class is from about 1290,^[6][7] and the action of reading or a lecture from the 14th century, now obsolete.^[6][7] An occurrence from which something can be learned is from the 1580s.^[2][6] The verb, to teach, is from 1555,^[6][8] and to rebuke or teach someone a lesson is recorded by the AHD.^[9]

Timeline

• a. 1225 – a Bible reading; a portion to be studied.^[6]
• c. 1290 – a period of teaching.^[6]
• 1555 – verb, to teach.^[6][8]
• 1580s – an instructive experience.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A period of time in which someone is taught something; a class.
2. Something to be learned, or an exercise for learning it.
3. An experience that teaches something: let that be a lesson to you.
4. A passage from the Bible read aloud in a church service.

Verb

1. (rare) To teach or reprimand.

Word family

• object lesson

Related words

• lectern
• lection
• lecture
• legend

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin