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lesson

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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

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