Etymologically
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tell

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tellen, inherited from Old English tellan (“to reckon, count; to relate”) (past tense tealde),[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *taljanan,[3] a verb formed from the noun that gave tale.[4][5][6] 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”).[3][2][7] According to Watkins it goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to count, reckon”).[2][8] The archaeological noun tell (1864) is a different word, from Arabic تل (tall, “hill, hillock”).[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To count or reckon, and to consider or esteem: Old English tellan meant “to reckon, calculate, number; to think, account”.[2] The verb is recorded before 899, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius.[3]

Semantic evolution

Like French conter and raconter and German zählen and erzählen, tell joins the ideas of counting and recounting.[2][7] The sense “narrate, relate” is from about 1000 and “make known by speech or writing” from the early 12th century.[2] “To distinguish, discern” (tell one from the other) is first recorded about 1370,[3] “to reveal, disclose” about 1400,[2] and “to order (someone to do something)” in the 1590s.[2] Used 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.[2] 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,[3][4] and in all told and tell one's beads.[2][4] Tell off meant “to count off” in 1804 and “to reprimand” from 1919.[2] 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's Boethius).[3]
  • c. 1000 – to narrate, relate.[2]
  • early 12th century – to make known, announce.[2]
  • c. 1200 – hear tell, hear it said.[2]
  • c. 1300 – intransitive, to give an account.[2]
  • c. 1370 – to distinguish, recognize.[3]
  • c. 1400 – to reveal, disclose.[2]
  • 1475 – teller, a person who keeps accounts.[3]
  • 1530s – to inform on someone.[2]
  • 1590s – to order someone to do something.[2]
  • 1743 – noun, a tale or account (now Scots and dialect).[11][5]
  • 1804 – tell off, to count off.[2]
  • 1864 – tell, an ancient settlement mound.[2][9]
  • 1919 – tell off, to reprimand.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To give an account of; narrate: tell a story.
  2. To express in words; say: tell the truth.
  3. To make known; reveal: tell a secret.
  4. To let (someone) know; 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; tattle.
  9. To have a noticeable effect: the strain began to tell.

Noun

  1. (archaeology) In the Middle East, a mound built up from the remains of successive settlements.
  2. (Scotland, dialect) A tale or account; a chat.

Word family

  • tellable
  • outtell
  • pretell
  • retell
  • foretell
  • kiss-and-tell
  • show-and-tell
  • tale
  • teller
  • untold
  • recount

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 q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b 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