The Gersum Project

WA pres. 1 sg. vndiretake, vndertake, past sg. vndiretuke, vndertuke

‘to take in, perceive, understand; guarantee’ (Modern English undertake)

OE under + take, and cp. OIcel taka undir ‘to lay hold of; undertake; back, second; echo’, MSw undertaka.

PGmc Ancestor

*tak-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

taka ‘to take’
(ONP taka (2) (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far taka, Icel taka, Norw taka, Dan tage, OSw taka, tagha, Sw taga

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

Widespread in ME in a variety of senses.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1483; WA 1356, 2967

MED undertāken (v.) , OED undertake (v.) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance vndertake