Other forms: tokens
A token is a small piece that stands for you in a board game. Move your token, choose a token, the token goes back to the start.
It also means a disc used instead of money — a car wash token, an arcade token — and a voucher: a book token, a gift token. As an adjective, token means done for appearance only: a token gesture, a token effort, a token woman on the panel, which is a serious criticism. Note tokenism; and by the same token, meaning for the same reason.
1nountokenA small piece standing for a player in a game.
“Somebody has lost the token shaped like a boot.”
2noundiscA disc or voucher used instead of money.
“You need a token to use the shopping trolley at this supermarket.”
3adjectivedoneDone for appearance only.
“It was a token gesture and it fooled nobody.”
token is a stand-in object or gesture.
Old English tacn meant a sign or symbol, from a root meaning to show — the same root as teach and Latin dicere. A token is something that shows rather than something that is, which is why the adjective became critical.
Proto-Indo-European
*deyḱ- — to show, instruct, teach
Proto-Germanic
*taikną — indicator, symbol, sign
Proto-West Germanic
*taikn
Old English
tācn — sign, symbol
Middle English
token
English, today
token
From Middle English token, taken, from Old English tācn (“sign, symbol”), from Proto-West Germanic taikn, from Proto-Germanic taikną (“indicator, symbol, sign”), from Proto-Indo-European deyḱ- (“to show, instruct, teach”) with Germanic k rather than h by Kluge's law. Cognate with Scots takin, taiken (“token, sign”), stq Teken (“sign, symbol”), West Frisian teken (“sign, mark, symbol”), Dutch teken (“sign, indication, symbol”), German Low German Teken (“sign, symbol”), {{cog|de|
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA