English
token
Token comes from Old English tācn ‘sign, symbol’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to show, instruct, teach’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deyḱ-‘to show, instruct, teach’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*taikną‘indicator, symbol, sign’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*taikn‘sign, token, symbol’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150tācn‘sign, symbol’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500token
- Englishearliest quotation 1398same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deyḱ-‘to show, instruct, teach’reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*taikną‘indicator, symbol, sign’reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*taikn‘sign, token, symbol’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150tācn‘sign, symbol’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500token
- Englishearliest quotation 1398same form
Earliest quotation: 1398, in Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, Middle English Dictionary: “dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] Golden or reddish-yellow…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- ‘to show, instruct, teach’
teach, index, indicate, predict, indication, dictionary, digit, indicator, addict, toe, paradigm, dictate, indicative, syndicate, contradiction, dictator, contradict, ditto, predicate, diction, ditty, dictum, interdict, syndicalism, dict, tache, indicia, 44 more
Today it means
noun Something serving as an expression of something else.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- / token