different between task vs travail

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English task, taske, from Old Northern French tasque, (compare Old French variant tasche), from Medieval Latin tasca, alteration of taxa, from Latin tax?re (“censure; charge”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /t??sk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tæsk/
• Rhymes: -æsk

Noun

task (plural tasks)

1. A piece of work done as part of one’s duties.

   The employee refused to complete the assignment, arguing that it was not one of the tasks listed in her job description.

2. Any piece of work done.
3. A difficult or tedious undertaking.
4. An objective.
5. (computing) A process or execution of a program.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "task": difficult, easy, simple, hard, tough, complex, not-so-easy, challenging, complicated, tricky, formidable, arduous, laborious, onerous, small, big, huge, enormous, tremendous, gigantic, mammoth, colossal, gargantuan, social, intellectual, theological, important, basic, trivial, unpleasant, demanding, pleasant, noble, painful, grim, responsible, rewarding, boring, ungrateful, delightful, glorious, agreeable.

Synonyms

• (piece of work): chore, job
• (difficult undertaking): undertaking
• (objective): objective, goal
• (process): process

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

task (third-person singular simple present tasks, present participle tasking, simple past and past participle tasked)

1. (transitive) To assign a task to, or impose a task on.

   On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.

   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 1 scene 2

     All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come / To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, / To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride / On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task / Ariel and all his quality.

   • c. 1693-1696, John Dryden, Last parting of Hector and Andromache: From the Sixth Book of Homer's Iliads

     There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.
2. (transitive) To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.
3. (transitive) To charge, as with a fault.

   • Too impudent to task me with those errors.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

task

1. Alternative form of taisch

Anagrams

• AKST, Kast, KTAS, askt, kast, kats, skat

English

Alternative forms

• travel, travell (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?-v?l?, tr?v??l', IPA^(key): /t???ve?l/, /?t?æv?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English travail, from Old French travail (“suffering, torment”), from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”) from Proto-Italic *tr?s + *p?kslos from Proto-Indo-European *peh??-.

Noun

travail (plural travails or travaux)

1. (literary) Arduous or painful exertion; excessive labor, suffering, hardship. [from 13th c.]
   • 1597, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, Book V, §21:

     But as every thing of price, so this doth require travail.

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 38:

     He had thought of making a destiny for himself, through laborious and untiring travail.
2. Specifically, the labor of childbirth. [from 13th c.]
   • 1607–08, William Shakespeare (?), Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act III, Chorus:

     The lady shrieks and, well-a-near,

     Does fall in travail with her fear.

   • 1611, King James Version, Genesis 38:27–28:

     And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first,

3. (obsolete, countable) An act of working; labor (US), labour (British). [14th-18th c.]
4. (obsolete) The eclipse of a celestial object. [17th c.]
5. Obsolete form of travel.
6. Alternative form of travois (“a kind of sled”)

Related terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “travail”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “travail”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

From Middle English travailen, from Old French travaillier, from the noun (see above).

Verb

travail (third-person singular simple present travails, present participle travailing, simple past and past participle travailed)

1. To toil.
   • 1552, Hugh Latimer, "Fourth Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, Preached before Lady Katherine, Duchess of Suffolk":

     [A]ll slothful persons, which will not travail for their livings, do the will of the devil.

   • 1611, King James Version, Job 15:20:

     The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
2. To go through the labor of childbirth.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John XIV:

     A woman when she traveyleth hath sorowe, be cause her houre is come: but as sone as she is delivered off her chylde she remembreth no moare her anguysshe, for ioye that a man is borne in to the worlde.

Translations

Further reading

• Tripalium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Middle French travail, from the singular form from Old French travail from Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, English travail, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

The plural from Old French travauz, from travailz with l-vocalization before a consonant. The final -auz was later spelled -aux, and the sequence -au-, which once represented a diphthong, now represents an o sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?a.vaj/
• Rhymes: -aj
• Homophones: travaille, travaillent, travailles

Noun

travail m (plural travaux)

1. work; labor
2. job
3. workplace

Synonyms

• boulot, taf, turbin, job

Derived terms

Further reading

• “travail” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French travail.

Noun

travail m (plural travails)

1. suffering; pain

Descendants

• French: travail

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (travail, supplement)

Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *tripali? (“to torture; suffer, toil”) from Late Latin trep?lium (“an instrument of torture”) from Latin trip?lis (“held up by three stakes”). Compare Occitan trabalh, Catalan treball, Italian travaglio, Portuguese trabalho, Spanish trabajo.

Noun

travail m (oblique plural travauz or travailz, nominative singular travauz or travailz, nominative plural travail)

1. suffering, torment

Descendants

• ? English: travail
• Middle French: travail
  • French: travail
• Norman: travas