task

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /tɑːsk/, US /tæsk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English taske,^[2][3] borrowed from Old Northern French tasque (“duty, tax”) (Old French tasche, modern French tâche),^[2][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *tasca (“a duty, assessment”),^[2][4] a metathesis of Medieval Latin taxa,^[2][4][5] itself from Latin taxāre (“to evaluate, estimate, assess; to touch, feel”).^[2][6] It is a doublet of tax.^[2] German Tasche “pocket” is from the same Vulgar Latin word, through a sense chain from work imposed, to its payment, to the pocket for the money.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of work imposed as a duty: before 1300 in the OED,^[7] before 1325 in Cursor Mundi according to Barnhart,^[4] the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[2] The OED's first sense, now obsolete, is a fixed payment to a king or lord, a tax.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English it also meant a tax, about 1400,^[2][4] a sense now obsolete but kept in to take to task (1680s).^[2] “Any piece of work that has to be done” is recorded by the 1590s,^[2][7] and a lesson set by a teacher from 1742.^[7] The verb first meant “to impose a tax on”, in the late 14th or early 15th century;^[2][4] “to assign a task to” is from 1530, in Palsgrave,^[4][7] and “to burden, put a strain on” from the 1590s.^[2] Taskmaster is from 1530, in Tyndale's Bible,^[4] and the task force is American, from 1941.^[4] In Scotland a task was also a wraith or spirit of someone about to die.^[8]

Timeline

• a. 1300 – a piece of work imposed.^[7]
• c. 1400 – a tax.^[2][4]
• 1530 – verb, to assign a task.^[4][7]
• 1590s – any piece of work.^[2]
• 1680s – take to task.^[2]
• 1941 – task force.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of work given to someone or done as part of a duty.
2. A difficult or tedious undertaking.
3. A function to be performed; an objective.

Verb

1. To assign a task to: was tasked with the review.
2. To overburden with work; to tax.

Word family

• taskless
• taskmistress
• taskwork
• multitasking
• subtask
• supertask
• taskmaster
• task force

Related words

• tax
• taxation

Usage notes

The American Heritage distinguishes task, a defined and often burdensome piece of work imposed by another, from job, chore, stint and assignment.^[9]

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 i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin