tell: [OE] Tell goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *taljan, a derivative of *talō ‘something told’ (from which English gets tale). This in turn was formed from the base *tal-, source also of English talk. Beside ‘narrative, discourse’ lies another strand of meaning, ‘counting, enumeration’ (pointing back to an original common denominator ‘put in order’), which survives in all told and the derivative teller ‘counter of votes’, and also in the related German zählen ‘count’. => tale, talk
tell (v.)
Old English tellan "to reckon, calculate, number, compute; consider, think, esteem, account" (past tense tealde, past participle teald), from Proto-Germanic *taljan "to mention in order" (cognates: Old Saxon tellian "tell," Old Norse telja "to count, number; to tell, say," Old Frisian tella "to count; to tell," Middle Dutch and Dutch tellen, Old Saxon talon "to count, reckon," Danish tale "to speak," Old High German zalon, German zählen "to count, reckon"), from PIE root *del- (2) "to count, reckon" (see tale).
Meaning "to narrate, announce, relate" in English is from c. 1000; that of "to make known by speech or writing, announce" is from early 12c. Sense of "to reveal or disclose" is from c. 1400; that of "to act as an informer, to 'peach' " is recorded from 1901. Meaning "to order (someone to do something)" is from 1590s. To tell (someone) off "reprimand" is from 1919.
Original sense in teller and phrase to tell time. For sense evolution, compare French conter "to count," raconter "to recount;" Italian contare, Spanish contar "to count, recount, narrate;" German zählen "to count," erzählen "to recount, narrate." Klein also compares Hebrew saphar "he counted," sipper "he told."
tell (n.)
"mound, hill," 1864, from Arabic tall, related to Hebrew tel "mount, hill, heap." Compare Hebrew talul "lofty," Akkadian tillu "woman's breast."
实用例句
1. "You really won't tell?" she asked, begging for reassurance.
“你真的不说吗？”她问道，乞求得到安慰。
来自柯林斯例句
2. She would have liked to tell him to butt out.
她本想告诉他叫他别插手的。
来自柯林斯例句
3. When your children misbehave tell them without making them feel small.
孩子表现不佳时要让他们知道，但不能让他们自惭形秽。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She scribbled a note to tell Mum she'dgone out.
她匆匆写了个便条告诉妈妈她已外出。
来自柯林斯例句
5. His friends say he was always quick to tell a joke.
