Unnumbered source etymology · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗Someone or something that is tall. · A clothing size for taller people. · A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces.
From Middle English tall, talle, tal (“seemly, becoming, handsome, good-looking, excellent, good, valiant, lively in speech, bold, great, large, big”), from Old English *tæl, ġetæl (“swift, ready, having mastery of”), from Proto-Germanic *talaz (“submissive, pliable, obedient”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, reckon”). Cognate with Scots tal (“high, lofty, tall”), Old Frisian tel (“swift”), Old Saxon gital (“quick”), Old High German gizal (“active, agile”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃 (untals, “indocile, disobedient”). The Oxford English Dictionary notes: "The sense development [of tall] is remarkable, but is paralleled more or less by that of other adjectives expressing estimation, such as buxom, canny, clean, clever, cunning, deft, elegant, handsome, pretty, proper; German klein, as compared with English clean, presents the antithesis to modern tall as compared to tall in early Middle English. It has been conjectured that in the sense 'high of stature' it is a different word, adopted from the Welsh tal in some sense; but the latter is, according to Professor Rhŷs, merely a 16th-century borrowing of the English word (in Owen Pughe's Dictionary erroneously mixed up with the genuine Welsh word tal (“end, brow, forehead”), with which it has no possible connection.)"
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentiontallenm
- Inherited-form mention*tælang
- Inherited-form mention*talazgem-pro · submissive, pliable, obedient
- Derivation mention*dol-ine-pro
- Cognate mentiontalsco · high, lofty, tall
- Cognate mentiontelofs · swift
- Cognate mentiongitalosx · quick
- Cognate mentiongizalgoh · active, agile
- Cognate mention𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃got · indocile, disobedient
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "tall"
},
"expansion": "Middle English tall"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "*tæl"
},
"expansion": "Old English *tæl"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*talaz",
"t": "submissive, pliable, obedient"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *talaz (“submissive, pliable, obedient”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*dol-"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *dol-"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "sco",
"2": "tal",
"t": "high, lofty, tall"
},
"expansion": "Scots tal (“high, lofty, tall”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ofs",
"2": "tel",
"t": "swift"
},
"expansion": "Old Frisian tel (“swift”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "osx",
"2": "gital",
"t": "quick"
},
"expansion": "Old Saxon gital (“quick”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "goh",
"2": "gizal",
"t": "active, agile"
},
"expansion": "Old High German gizal (“active, agile”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "got",
"2": "𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃",
"t": "indocile, disobedient"
},
"expansion": "Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃 (untals, “indocile, disobedient”)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"tall",
"tall#Middle_English"
],
[
"talle",
"talle#Middle_English"
],
[
"tal",
"tal#Middle_English"
],
[
"*tæl",
"Reconstruction:Old English/tæl"
],
[
"ġetæl",
"getæl#Old_English"
],
[
"*talaz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/talaz"
],
[
"*dol-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dol-"
],
[
"*del-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/del-"
],
[
"tal",
"tal#Scots"
],
[
"tel",
"tel#Old_Frisian"
],
[
"gital",
"gital#Old_Saxon"
],
[
"gizal",
"gizal#Old_High_German"
],
[
"𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃",
"𐌿𐌽𐍄𐌰𐌻𐍃#Gothic"
],
[
"buxom",
"buxom"
],
[
"canny",
"canny"
],
[
"clean",
"clean"
],
[
"clever",
"clever"
],
[
"cunning",
"cunning"
],
[
"deft",
"deft"
],
[
"elegant",
"elegant"
],
[
"handsome",
"handsome"
],
[
"pretty",
"pretty"
],
[
"proper",
"proper"
],
[
"klein",
"klein#German"
],
[
"clean",
"clean"
],
[
"tal",
"tal#Welsh"
],
[
"tal",
"tal#Welsh"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"Someone or something that is tall.",
"A clothing size for taller people.",
"A tall serving of a drink, especially one from Starbucks, which contains 12 ounces."
],
"tags": [
"nonstandard",
"possibly"
],
"recordId": "8d41ca2395e24fe9ddf62b8e082154bd3b18f290e78332f872f3b841e3ae0732",
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}