Etymology

tease

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Today it means: To separate the fibres of (a fibrous material). Full definition →

Middle English tesen ← Old English tǣsan ← Proto-West Germanic *taisijan
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*taisijan“to separate, tug, shred”
  2. Old English · inherited fromtǣsan“to tease”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromtesen
  4. English todaytease

From Middle English tesen, from Old English tǣsan (“to tease”), from Proto-West Germanic *taisijan (“to separate, tug, shred”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.