Etymograph

English

tell

Tell comes from Old English tellan ‘to count, calculate; to tell, narrate’, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną ‘to count; to recount’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *talō ‘narration; number, calculation’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*talō1‘narration, speech; number, calculation’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*taljaną1‘to enumerate, count; to recount, tell’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*talljan1‘to count; to recount, tell’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150tellan1‘to count, calculate; to tell, narrate’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tellen1‘to count, tell’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1589–1590tell1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English tell
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlowe, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […]: “Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay The…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*talōWiktionary, English tell‘narration, speech; number, calculation’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*taljanąWiktionary, English tell‘to enumerate, count; to recount, tell’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*talljanWiktionary, English tell‘to count; to recount, tell’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150tellanWiktionary, English tell‘to count, calculate; to tell, narrate’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500tellenWiktionary, English tell‘to count, tell’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1589–1590tellWiktionary, English tell. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1589–1590, Christopher Marlowe, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […]: “Well fare the Arabians, who so richly pay The…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dol- ‘calculation, fraud’

talk, tall

through Proto-Germanic *taljaną ‘to enumerate, count’

told, 3 more

through Old English tellan ‘to count, tell’

untold, 3 more

Another origin of tell

  1. Proto-Afroasiaticprehistoric (reconstructed)*tül-‘hill’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Semiticc. 4000–3000 BCE*tall-‘hill’reconstructed
  3. Arabicc. 500–presentتَلّtall‘hill, elevation’uncertain
  4. Englishtodaytell

Today it means

verb To determine the number, amount, or value of [something].

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “tell”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *talō / tell

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