Etymology
1. late O.E.
tacan, from a N.Gmc. source (e.g. O.N.
taka "take, grasp, lay hold," past tense
tok, pp.
tekinn; Swed.
ta, pp.
tagit), from P.Gmc.
*tækanan (cf. M.L.G.
tacken, M.Du.
taken, Goth.
tekan "to touch"), of uncertain origin, perhaps originally meaning "to touch." Gradually replaced M.E.
nimen as the verb for "to take," from O.E.
niman, from the usual W.Gmc.
*nem- root (cf. Ger.
nehmen, Du.
nemen), also of unknown origin. OED calls it "one of the elemental words of the language;"
take up alone has 55 varieties of meaning in that dictionary. Basic sense is "to lay hold of," which evolved to "accept, receive" (as in
take my advice) c.1200; "absorb" (
he can take a punch) c.1200; "to choose, select" (
take the long way home) c.1275; "to make, obtain" (
take a shower) 1375; "to become affected by" (
take sick) c.1300.
Take five is 1929, from the approximate time it takes to smoke a cigarette.
Take it easy first recorded 1880;
take the plunge "act decisively" is from 1876;
take the rap "accept (undeserved) punishment" is from 1930. Phrase
take it or leave it is recorded from 1897.
2. From Middle English taken (“to take, lay hold of, grasp, strike”), from Old English tacan (“to grasp, touch”), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse taka (“to touch, take”), from Proto-Germanic *tēkaną (“to touch”), from pre-Germanic *deh₁g- (“to touch”), possibly a phonetically altered form of Proto-Indo-European *te-th₂g- (“to touch, take”) (see there for details).
3. Gradually displaced native English nim, from Middle English nimen, from Old English niman (“to take”).
4. Cognates
5. Cognate with Scots tak (“to take”), Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk taka (“to take”), Norwegian Bokmål ta (“to take”), Swedish ta (“to take”), Danish tage (“to take, seize”), West Frisian take, taakje (“to grab, steal”), Dutch taken (“to take; grasp”), Middle Low German tacken (“to grasp”). English thack may be from the same root. Compare tackle. Despite superficial similarity, unrelated to Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to take by hand, obtain”), which is instead cognate with English thig (“to beg”). See: Middle English '
taken', Old English '
tacan', Proto-Germanic '
*tēkaną', Scots '
tak', Norwegian, nynorsk '
taka', Norwegian '
ta', Swedish '
ta', Danish '
tage', Dutch '
taken'.
Verbs referencing "take"
Scots
tak, Norwegian
ta, Norwegian, nynorsk
ta, Swedish
ta, Norwegian, nynorsk
taka, Sranan
teki, Danish
tage, Finnish with old forms
teikata.