Etymologically
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teaser

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Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈtiːzɚ/[1]

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

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