Taecan

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An Old English verb meaning to show, point out, or instruct someone in something
2. An archaic Old English verb for showing or pointing something out, or teaching it to another person
3. Old English for to indicate, demonstrate, or instruct, a verb of showing and teaching in early English

Etymology: Old English "tæcan" meant "to show, point out, teach, or direct," and it is the ancestor of the modern English "teach." The sense was about showing someone how to do something, and the notion of formal instruction came later, as the word narrowed toward the transfer of knowledge from teacher to pupil. The verb has a traceable Germanic pedigree. It belongs to a family of Old English and Old Norse forms related to "token," which is itself a good clue to the original idea: a token is a sign that points to something. In that light, teaching was originally pointing the learner toward the thing to be known. The vowel shift from "taecan" to "teach" is regular. Old English long "æ" developed into a sound that Middle English spelled "ch" in "teche," and the modern spelling fixed the form in the 1500s. The word has stayed in continuous use since the Old English period, so it is one of the few common English verbs whose basic sense has survived almost unchanged for over a thousand years.