*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of teal

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 *tai

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
noun

Any of various small freshwater ducks of the genus Anas that are brightly coloured and have short necks. · A dark, somewhat bluish-green colour; a dark cyan. · A teal independent.

adj

Having a bluish-green colour.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

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).

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

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": "tele"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English tele"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ang",
        "3": "*tǣle"
      },
      "expansion": "Old English *tǣle"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "fy",
        "2": "tjilling",
        "3": "",
        "4": "teal"
      },
      "expansion": "West Frisian tjilling (“teal”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "dum",
        "2": "teling",
        "t": "teal"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Dutch teling (“teal”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "nl",
        "2": "taling"
      },
      "expansion": "Dutch taling"
    },
    {
      "name": "cog",
      "args": {
        "1": "gml",
        "2": "telink"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Low German telink"
    },
    {
      "name": "inh",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gem-pro",
        "3": "*tailijaz"
      },
      "expansion": "Proto-Germanic *tailijaz"
    },
    {
      "name": "unk",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "title": "unknown"
      },
      "expansion": "unknown"
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "tele",
      "tele#Middle_English"
    ],
    [
      "*tǣle",
      "Reconstruction:Old English/tæle"
    ],
    [
      "tjilling",
      "tjilling#West_Frisian"
    ],
    [
      "teling",
      "teling#Middle_Dutch"
    ],
    [
      "taling",
      "taling#Dutch"
    ],
    [
      "telink",
      "telink#Middle_Low_German"
    ],
    [
      "*tailijaz",
      "Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/tailijaz"
    ],
    [
      "feal",
      "feal#English"
    ],
    [
      "heal",
      "heal#English"
    ],
    [
      "green",
      "green#English"
    ],
    [
      "blue",
      "blue#English"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "Any of various small freshwater ducks of the genus Anas that are brightly coloured and have short necks.",
        "A dark, somewhat bluish-green colour; a dark cyan.",
        "A teal independent."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable",
        "Australia",
        "attributive"
      ],
      "recordId": "243b2ce86b497802815ad8bfda3fa6d0e0510b93070aeb284e98e44a433f172c",
      "rawRecordSha256": "ba8947243411bafc6b33f58e872826621224aabb3042d55d6b1ac7838db88c95",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 19778
    },
    {
      "pos": "adj",
      "glosses": [
        "Having a bluish-green colour."
      ],
      "tags": [],
      "recordId": "55106efc3d04f990b708bfbc0a54ab94625efd0e2711bb16784724ae875ca205",
      "rawRecordSha256": "b65d2f126bf9d99a656a5d708eaeab82ef2339a1c0805a515f0680046095118a",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 19779
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for teal →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-dGVhbA