Etymologically
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task

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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

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