tid

Forms

tīd f (nominative plural tīda or tīde) (strong i-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tīdi, from Proto-Germanic *tīdiz (“time”), from Proto-Indo-European *dih₂tís, a noun in *-tis made to the root *deh₂y- (“to divide”).^[1] Kroonen reconstructs it as *dh₂i-tí- and lists the cognates Old Norse tíð, Old Frisian tīd, Old Saxon tīd and Old High German zīt.^[2][3] Outside Germanic he compares an Armenian word for “age, time” and verbs meaning “to divide”, such as Ancient Greek δαίομαι (daíomai).^[2][4] Orel sets it beside the Armenian word and an Albanian word for “day”, from *dī-ti-.^[3] Köbler gives the same root, meaning “to divide, cut”, with a question mark.^[5]

Kroonen thinks the related verbs tīdan (“to betide, happen”) and Old Norse tíða (“to strive”) keep the oldest meaning, “to strive”.^[2] It is a feminine i-stem, with the nominative plural tīda or tīde.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is the grant of the ealdorman Oswulf and his wife Beornthryth to Christ Church, Canterbury (dated 805×810), in a ninth-century single sheet: they ask that the community keep unce tide ymb tuælfmonað “our anniversary every twelve months”, and that food be given out suae mon aet hlaforda tidum doeð “as is done at the anniversaries of lords”.^[6][7] Here the word already has the sense of a commemoration.^[8] The Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897) has it in the sense of a fitting time: hwilum sie spræce tiid, hwilum swigean “sometimes there is a time for speech, sometimes for silence”.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with the time at which something happens, then the proper time for an action, an hour of the day, the canonical hour with its service, and a commemoration or festival; a second group of senses marks a span of time, an hour or a season, and in the plural an age.^[8] In Ælfric's Grammar the word renders Latin “tempus” as the tense of a verb, with the present, past and future tenses.^[8] In the glosses it renders Latin “hora” and “tempus”.^[5] The Old English Martyrology uses it for a saint's feast.^[10]

The word lived on as Middle English tide, now English tide; the sense “time, season” is kept in names such as Shrovetide.^[11][8]

Timeline

• s. ix – unce tide ymb tuælfmonað “our anniversary every twelve months” in Oswulf's charter for Christ Church, Canterbury (805×810).^[6][7]
• 890×897 – spræce tiid “a time for speech” in the Pastoral Care.^[9][7]
• s. x/xi – a saint's feast day in the Old English Martyrology.^[12][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a time at which something happens; an hour, a date.^[8]
2. the proper time for something, a season, an opportunity.^[8]
3. an hour of the day.^[8][5]
4. (Christianity) a canonical hour, and the service held at it.^[8][13]
5. a festival, a feast day, an anniversary.^[8][13]
6. a period of time; in the plural, times, an age.^[8][14]
7. (grammar) the tense of a verb.^[8][14]

Word family

• ǣfentīd
• bedtīd
• ġebedtīd
• hærfesttīd
• hēahtīd
• lenctentīd
• metetīd
• morgentīd
• nōntīd
• tīddæġ

Descendants

• Middle English tide (→ English tide; Middle Scots tyde; Middle Scots tide)^[1]

Related words

• tīma
• tīdan

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 516
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 407
4. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 346
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tīd
6. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1188
7. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 981
9. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
10. ^ a b Rauer, Christine, ed. (2013), The Old English Martyrology: Edition, Translation and Commentary, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer (glossary), p. s.v. tid
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 281
13. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 340
14. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 194