teaser

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English teser,^[2][3] formed from English tease + -er.^[4][5][6] The verb tease is from Old English tǣsan (“to pluck, pull apart, comb (wool or flax)”),^[6][7][4] from Proto-Germanic *taisijaną, also the source of Middle Dutch tēsen and Old High German zeisan (“to tease or pick wool”).^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An instrument or machine for teasing wool: 1395, in the cartulary of Whitby Abbey.^[4] A person who teases wool is recorded from 1483.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century, and finds it as a surname from the late 13th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the verb tease, which went from separating the fibres of wool to vexing a person in the early 17th century.^[7][6] Teaser for a person who teases or annoys others is recorded from 1659, earlier than the noun tease in this sense (1852).^[4][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as anything that torments by constant pestering.^[9] The sense "something annoying or hard to deal with, a poser" is dated 1759 in the OED,^[4][6] but Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1733, and in boxing slang a teaser was an opponent hard to overcome.^[10][4] Breeders used teaser for an inferior stallion or ram used to excite the females (1823),^[4] and in dialect it was the name of birds such as the skua, which chase gulls until they drop their catch (1833).^[4] From the 1890s it also meant a woman who encourages but refuses sexual advances, and in 1929 a striptease act.^[4][6][10] The sense of a small sample meant to whet the appetite is originally American;^[10] Etymonline dates "short sample, introductory advertisement" from 1934, and by 1965 a teaser was a headline technique in advertising and journalism.^[6][10] In regional English the English Dialect Dictionary recorded it for a tease, a person who teases.^[11]

Timeline

• 1395 – a device for teasing wool.^[4]
• 1483 – a person who teases wool.^[4]
• 1659 – a person who teases or annoys.^[4][7]
• 1733 – something annoying or hard to deal with.^[10]
• 1759 – a poser, a difficult question or task.^[4][6]
• 1823 – an inferior stallion or ram used to excite the females.^[4]
• 1895 – a woman who arouses but evades sexual advances.^[4][6]
• 1929 – a striptease act or artist.^[4]
• 1934 – a short sample, an introductory advertisement.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who teases others.^[12][13][14]
2. A difficult question, problem or task; a puzzle.^{[12][13][14][2]}
3. A short, often cryptic advertisement or trailer meant to make people curious about a coming product, film or programme.^[12][13][14]
4. An advertisement that draws customers by offering something extra or free.^[14]
5. A male animal, often vasectomized, used to find out which females are in oestrus, or an inferior stallion or ram used to excite them before mating.^{[12][13][2][4]}
6. A worker or machine that teases wool or other fibre.^[2][14][4]
7. (colloquial) A woman who encourages sexual advances but does not respond to them.^[2][4]

Word family

• brainteaser
• cockteaser

Related words

• tease
• teasel
• striptease

Usage notes

Teaser in the sense of a stoker of a furnace (1797), also a poker for the fire (1839), has a separate source: it is from French tiseur (“a fireman”), from tiser (“to feed fuel into a furnace”), and Merriam-Webster still records it for the fireman of a glass-melting furnace.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt