tell

English has two words spelled tell: the common verb, from Old English tellan “to count, relate”, and the archaeological mound, from Arabic tall.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tel/^[4]

tell¹ relate, inform

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English tellen, inherited from Old English tellan (“to reckon, count; to relate”) (past tense tealde),^[5][6] from Proto-Germanic *taljaną,^[6] a verb formed from the noun that gave tale.^[7][8][9] Its cognates are Old Frisian tella (“to count, to tell”), Old Saxon tellian, Dutch tellen (“to count”), Old High German zellen (“to tell, count”) (modern German zählen (“to count”)) and Old Norse telja (“to count, to tell, say”).^[6][5][10] According to Watkins it goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To count or reckon, and to consider or esteem: Old English tellan meant “to reckon, calculate, number; to think, account”,^[5] recorded before 899 in King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Like French conter and raconter and German zählen and erzählen, tell joins the ideas of counting and recounting.^[5][10] The sense “narrate, relate” is from about 1000 and “make known by speech or writing” from the early 12th century.^[5] “To distinguish, discern” (tell one from the other) is first recorded about 1370,^[6] “to reveal, disclose” about 1400,^[5] and “to order (someone to do something)” in the 1590s.^[5] Without an object it meant “to give an account” about 1300, “to inform on someone” in the 1530s and “to chat, gossip” in the 1650s.^[5] The sense “to have an effect, count” developed in the 18th century.^[11] The old counting sense survives in teller, a person who keeps accounts from 1475,^[6][7] and in all told and tell one's beads.^[5][7] Tell off meant “to count off” in 1804 and “to reprimand” from 1919.^[5] In Old English untold meant “not counted”; the sense “too many to count” is Late Middle English.^[12]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English tellan (Alfred).^[6]
• c. 1000 – to narrate, relate.^[5]
• early 12th century – to make known.^[5]
• c. 1370 – to distinguish.^[6]
• c. 1400 – to reveal, disclose.^[5]
• 1475 – teller, one who keeps accounts.^[6]
• 1590s – to order someone to do something.^[5]
• 1742 – noun, a tale or account.^[13]
• 1919 – tell off, to reprimand.^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To give an account of; to narrate: tell a story.
2. To express in words; to say: tell the truth.
3. To make known; to reveal: tell a secret.
4. To let (someone) know; to inform.
5. To order or instruct: told him to wait.
6. To make out or distinguish: can't tell the twins apart.
7. (archaic) To count one by one: tell one's beads.
8. To inform on someone; to tattle.
9. To have a noticeable effect: the strain began to tell.

Noun

1. (Scotland, dialect) A tale or account; a chat.

Word family

• teller
• telling
• retell
• foretell
• untold
• kiss-and-tell
• show-and-tell

tell² mound

Etymology

The mound is borrowed from Arabic تل (tall, “hillock, mound”),^[5][2][3] related to Hebrew tel “mount, hill, heap”^[5][10] and to Akkadian tillu “mound, woman's breast”.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Middle East, an artificial mound, usually covering the ruins of an ancient city, recorded in 1864.^[13][2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is used especially of a mound built up from the remains of successive settlements,^[2][9] and appears in Middle Eastern place names such as Tel Aviv.^[5]

Timeline

• 1864 – an ancient settlement mound.^[13][2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (archaeology) In the Middle East, a mound built up from the remains of successive settlements.

Related words

• tale
• recount

References

1. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press