team

pronunciation

How to pronounce team in British English: UK [tiːm] word uk audio image

How to pronounce team in American English: US [tiːm] word us audio image

Noun:

a cooperative unit
two or more draft animals that work together to pull something
Verb:

form a team

Word Origin

team: team: [OE] The etymological notion underlying the word team is ‘pulling’. It goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *deuk- ‘pull’, which also produced Latin dūcere ‘pull, lead’ (source of English abduct, duke, etc). Its Germanic descendant was *taukh-. From this was derived a noun *taugmaz, whose later form *taumaz gave English team.This originally denoted a group of animals harnessed together to ‘pull’ a load, but the modern sense ‘group of people acting together’ did not emerge from this until the 16th century. Another strand in the meaning of the base is ‘giving birth, off-spring’ (presumably based on the notion of children being ‘drawn’ forth from the womb). This has now disappeared from team, but traces of it can still be detected in the related teem [OE], whose modern connotations of ‘abundance’ go back to an earlier ‘bring forth offspring prolifically’.From the same source come English tie and tow.=> abduct, duct, duke, educate, teem, tie, tow

team (n.): Old English team "descendant, family, race, line; child-bearing, brood; company, band; set of draft animals yoked together," from Proto-Germanic *tau(h)maz (cognates: Old Norse taumr, Old Frisian tam "bridle; progeny, line of descent," Dutch toom, Old High German zoum, German Zaum "bridle"), probably literally "that which draws," from PIE *douk-mo-, from root *deuk- "to pull" (see duke (n.)). Applied in Old English to groups of persons working together for some purpose, especially "group of people acting together to bring suit;" modern sense of "persons associated in some joint action" is from 1520s. Team spirit is recorded from 1928. Team player attested from 1886, originally in baseball.

team (v.): 1550s, "to harness beasts in a team," from team (n.). From 1841 as "drive a team." The meaning "to come together as a team" (usually with up) is attested from 1932. Transitive sense "to use (something) in conjunction" (with something else) is from 1948. Related: Teamed; teaming. The Old English verb, teaman, tieman, is attested only in the sense "bring forth, beget, engender, propagate."