Took
/tʊk/noun
The past tense of “take,” meaning to have obtained, carried, seized, or moved something.
Did you know?“Took” preserves an old Germanic pattern in which the past tense changed the vowel of the verb, a relic known as vowel alternation or ablaut.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*tēkaną
“To touch, grasp, or take; the reconstructed ancestor of later Germanic forms.”
Old Norse
Old Norse
taka
“To take, grasp, or receive.”
Old English
Old English
tacan
“To take, seize, capture, or receive; borrowed from Scandinavian speech.”
Old English
Old English
tōc
“Took; the past-tense form of tacan.”
Middle English
Middle English
took
“Past tense of taken or take, with the modern spelling emerging.”
Modern English
English
took
“The standard past tense of take.”