Tacen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic past participle of the verb take, meaning grasped, received, or carried away in older English
2. Old form of the past participle of take, used in earlier English writing to mean having been seized or accepted
3. A dated spelling of the past participle of take, indicating that something was grasped, obtained, or conveyed

Etymology: "Tacen" is the past participle of "taecan", the Old English verb meaning "to show, point out, or teach", and it is a form that belonged to Old English-era verbs of showing and teaching. Its related forms appear in the Anglo-Saxon texts that survive from the period before the Norman Conquest. The verb descends from a Germanic root shared with German "zeigen", which also means "to show". Over the centuries the English verb was gradually replaced by other words, and the past participle "tacen" dropped out of ordinary use, surviving only in older writing and poetry. Because it is a participle, "tacen" is strictly a form of the verb rather than a separate word. Its meaning is that of "shown" or "taught" in the sense of having been pointed out or instructed.