| 1 | English | telling | present participle of tell; Having force, or... |
| 2 | English | tell | To count, reckon, or enumerate; To narrate; To... |
| 3 | Middle English | tellen | to count; to tell |
| 4 | Old English | tellan | to count, calculate; to tell, narrate, recount;... |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | talljan | to count, to enumerate; to recount, to tell |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | taljaną | to enumerate, count; to account, recount, tell |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | talą | speech; number |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | dol- | reckoning, calculation, fraud; calculation, fraud |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | del- | to aim, calculate, adjust, count; to reckon,... |