Other forms: said, saying, says
To say something is to speak the words out loud. You say hello, you say your name, you say sorry to the person you bumped into on the stairs. Say points at what came out of your mouth, not at who was listening.
The trap is say and tell. You say something, and you say something TO someone; you tell someone something, with no to in front of them. So 'he said me' is wrong, and so is 'he told to me'. Things that carry words say them as well: the sign says no entry, the label says wash cold, your watch says half past. Say is a noun too — a say in a decision, meaning a share of the power to decide — and it can propose a case: say it rains on Saturday, what then? The past tense is said, which does not rhyme with the word it comes from.
1verbsayTo speak words out loud.
“Say your name slowly so everyone at the back can hear it.”
2verbgiveTo give information in written or displayed words, as a sign, book or clock does.
“The label says to wash it at thirty degrees.”
3verbsupposeTo suppose something for the sake of argument.
“Say the train is late again — how do we get her to the airport?”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: tell
Say goes back through Middle English saien to Old English seċġan, to speak, and behind that Proto-Germanic sagjaną, to say. Further back sits the Proto-Indo-European root sekʷ-, also meaning to say. German sagen and Dutch zeggen are the same word wearing different clothes.
Proto-Indo-European
*sokʷ-h₁-yé-
Proto-Germanic
*sagjaną — to say
Proto-West Germanic
*saggjan
Old English
seċġan
Middle English
saien
English, today
say
Built from
From Middle English saien, sain, san, secgan, segen, seien, sein, seiȝen, sugen, sægen, ziggen, from Old English seċġan, secgean, secggan, secggean, seggan, sæċġan (“to say, speak”), from Proto-West Germanic saggjan, from Proto-Germanic sagjaną (“to say”), from Proto-Indo-European sokʷ-h₁-yé-, a suffixed o-grade form of sekʷ- (“to say”). 2 Cognate with frr sai, seede, sii, sjide, sooi, säie (“to say”), West Frisian sizze (“to say”), gsw ŝchége, ŝchegi, séege, säge, sägä (“to say”), bar sogn, soon, sågn (“to say”), Dutch zeggen (“to say”), German sagen (“to say”), Low German seggen (“to say, tell”), lb soen (“to say”), wym ziöen, zuön, zuø̄n (“to say”), Yiddish זאָגן (“to say”), Danish sige (“to say”), ovd saja (“to say”), Faroese siga (“to say”), Icelandic segja (“to say”), gmq-jmk segi (“to say”), Norwegian Bokmål si (“to say”), Norwegian Nynorsk segja, seia, seie (“to say, tell”), gmq-scy siğa (“to say”), Swedish säga (“to say”); also kw hwedhel (“narrative, story, tale”), Irish scéal (“story, tale”), gv skeeal (“story; news; narrative”), Scottish Gaelic sgeul (“story, tale; information, news”), Welsh chwedl (“story, tale”), hebu (“to say”), Latin inquam (“to say”), Ancient Greek ἐνέπω, ἐννέπω (“tell or tell about; speak”), Latvian sacīt (“to say, tell”), Lithuanian sakyti (“to say, tell”), Bulgarian соча (“to indicate; to point”), Czech sočit (“to blame, hate”), zlw-opl soczyć (“to accuse, slander”), Russian сочи́ть (“to emit (a liquid)”), Ukrainian сочи́ти (“to emit (a liquid), exude, ooze; to drain, sap”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA