Teal

How to spell teal

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce teal

What does teal mean?

1. nounA dark blue-green colour, a blend of blue and green.
2. nounA small freshwater duck, noted for its fast, agile flight.

Teal in a sentence

• She painted the bedroom wall a deep teal.

• A pair of teal landed on the marsh at dawn.

• The brand chose teal for its logo to stand out from the usual blues.

• The birdwatcher noted a teal among the mallards on the lake.

Where does teal come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Teal began life in late Middle English as 'tele', the name of a small, fast-flying freshwater duck. The word is Germanic in character and is related to forms in Dutch and Low German for the same bird, though no single recorded ancestor explains it fully, so its earliest history is a little hazy. For centuries it meant only the duck, prized by hunters for its speed and by cooks for its flavour. The common teal has a distinctive band of greenish-blue feathers across its head and wing, and around the start of the twentieth century English speakers borrowed the bird's name for that very colour, a dark blend of blue and green. The spelling stayed simple and short throughout, which is unusual for a colour term and makes it one of the easier ones to write.

How the word is built

• teal (single root, originally the name of the duck; later applied to the colour)