teach
Definitions
Information & Library Science
- verb to impart knowledge or skill to somebody by instruction or example
- verb to give lessons in or provide information about a subject
Medical
- verb to give lessons in something
Origin & History of “teach”
To teach someone is etymologically to ‘show’ them something. The word goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Indo-European base *deik- ‘show’, which also produced Greek deiknúnai ‘show’ (source of English paradigm (15th c.)) and Latin dīcere ‘say’ (source of English diction, dictionary, etc). Its Germanic descendant was *taik-, which produced English token and German zeigen ‘show’. from it was derived the verb *taikjan, ancestor of English teach.
