Etymology

teal

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Today it means: Any of various small freshwater ducks of the genus Anas that are brightly coloured and have short necks. Full definition →

Middle English tele ← Old English *tǣle ← Proto-Germanic *tailijaz
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teal · noun, adjective1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*tailijaz
  2. Old English · inherited from*tǣle
  3. Middle English · inherited fromtele
  4. English todayteal

From Middle English tele, probably from an unrecorded Old English *tǣle, cognate with West Frisian tjilling (“teal”), Middle Dutch teling (“teal”) (modern Dutch taling), Middle Low German telink, from Proto-Germanic *tailijaz, of unknown ultimate origin, with no cognates outside of Germanic. Compare feal and heal for similar phonological development. As the name of a shade of dark greenish-blue like the color patterns on the fowl's head and wings, it is attested from 1923. The Australian political sense derives from the colour teal being intermediate between green (signifying environmentalism) and blue (signifying the conservative Australian Liberal Party).

Teal · proper noun2

From teal, a nickname given to someone considered to resemble this duck.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.