tēkaną (Proto-Germanic)
Where does "tēkaną" come from?
The Proto-Germanic verb 'tēkaną', meaning 'to touch' or 'to grasp; to take', traces back to an apparent Proto-Indo-European root 'deh₁g-', meaning 'to touch'[1]. The only direct formal cognate outside of Germanic is Tocharian B 'täk-', meaning 'to touch, feel (with the hand); to fetch'[1]. Scholars have proposed that this form might relate to the Proto-Indo-European root 'teh₂g-', which also means 'to touch, take (by the hand)' and connects to Latin 'tangō' and Ancient Greek 'τεταγών'[1].
Open questions
- The derivation from Proto-Indo-European involves complex phonetic difficulties, including unexpected consonant shifts and vowel developments that scholars have attempted to resolve through various hypotheses involving reduplication and dissimilation. [1]
Ancestors
- *teh₂g- (Proto-Indo-European)
Cognates and doublets
- τεταγών (Ancient Greek)
- tango (Latin)
- *teh₂g- (Proto-Indo-European)
- täk- (Tocharian B)
Descendants and derived words
- 𐍄𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌽 (Gothic)
- taka (Old Norse)
- taka (Old Norse)
Sources
Updated August 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris