lesson
UK[ˈlesn]US[ˈlesn]
n
A period of time in which a person is taught about a subject or how to do something.
n
An experience that serves to warn you or provide knowledge.
n
A passage from the Bible read aloud during a church service.
Etymology
The word 'lesson' entered English in the early 13th century from the Old French 'leçon', which itself derived from the Latin 'lectionem', meaning "a reading". This Latin noun originates from the past participle stem 'lect-' of the verb 'legere', meaning "to read". The core Proto-Indo-European root is leg-, signifying "to collect, gather", which semantically extended to "to pick out words", and thus "to read". Therefore, the modern English meaning evolved from the specific act of reading scripture or a text for instruction into the broader concept of an instructional period or a piece of instructive knowledge.
Analysis
The word 'lesson' is a simplex form borrowed from Old French. Its spelling and structure are not productively segmentable into distinct, meaningful morphemes in modern English.
Examples
The first math lesson of the day starts at nine o'clock.
Losing that game taught the team a valuable lesson about overconfidence.
The vicar read the lesson from the Book of Psalms.