Etymologically
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tease

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tesen, also tesien,[2][3] inherited from Old English tǣsan (“to pluck, pull apart, tear; to comb wool”),[4][5][6][7] from Proto-West Germanic *taisjan,[6][8] which Etymonline gives as Proto-Germanic *taisijan.[4] It is cognate with tēsen, tezen (“to draw, pull, scratch”), tæse and zeisan (“to pick or tease wool”).[4][6][3] The same base gave teasel, the plant whose prickly heads were used to card wool,[8][9] and Klein and Partridge relate it to touse and tousle.[10][11] Barnhart compares an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *dāi- (“to divide”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To separate or pull apart the fibres of wool or flax before spinning; to comb or card: Old English, in the Saxon Leechdoms,[5] about 1000 according to Barnhart.[3] The Middle English verb is recorded from about 1290.[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline describes the original action as running thorns through wool or flax to separate the fibres.[4] From the 17th century the word was used figuratively for worrying or annoying someone by persistent petty actions, from 1619 in Barnhart[3] and 1627 in the OED;[5] Ayto sees here the notion of irritating someone with prickles, and the sense gradually weakened to "make fun of".[8] Barnhart and Etymonline compare the similar development of heckle.[3][4] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: to comb wool or flax, to scratch cloth to raise the nap, and to torment with importunity.[12] The sexual sense, to arouse desire without meaning to satisfy it, is recorded from 1694.[5] The noun, an act of teasing, is from 1693, in Cotton Mather,[5][3] and a person who teases from 1852, in Dickens's Bleak House.[5][3][4] The 20th century brought backcombing hair (1957),[5][4] tease out, to extract by patient effort (1959),[5] and short for striptease (1927).[5][4] In slang to tease once meant to flog.[13][5]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English tǣsan, to pull apart fibres.[3][5]
  • c. 1290 – Middle English tesien.[3]
  • 1619 – to vex or annoy.[3]
  • 1693 – noun, an act of teasing.[5][3]
  • 1694 – to arouse sexual desire without satisfying it.[5]
  • 1755 – to raise the nap of cloth with teasels.[5]
  • 1852 – noun, a person who teases.[5][4]
  • 1927 – to perform a striptease; noun, a striptease.[5]
  • 1957 – to backcomb hair.[5][4]
  • 1959 – tease out, to extract by careful effort.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make fun of or annoy someone playfully or unkindly, especially by ridicule: His sisters teased him about his new haircut.[14][5]
  2. To tempt or provoke someone, especially to arouse sexual desire without intending to satisfy it.[14][5]
  3. To annoy someone by offering something and then delaying or withdrawing the offer.[14]
  4. To separate the fibres of wool or flax; to comb or card.[14][15][5]
  5. To raise the nap of cloth with a teasel.[14][15][5]
  6. (chiefly US) To backcomb the hair to give it more volume.[14][5]
  7. tease out: to separate or extract something by patient effort: The study tries to tease out the causes of the decline.[5]

Noun

  1. A person who teases, especially one who flirts without serious intent.[5][15]
  2. An act of teasing.[5][15]
  3. A striptease.[5]

Word family

  • teasingly
  • teasable
  • teasableness
  • striptease
  • unteased
  • teaser
  • tease out

Usage notes

Two further verbs of the same spelling are minor: tease, to feed a glass furnace with fuel, from tiser, short for attiser (“to stir up a fire”) (1818),[5][15] and an archaic tease, to urge on, an alteration of Middle English taysen.[15]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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 c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster