tima

Forms

tīma m (weak; genitive singular tīman, nominative plural tīman)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tīmō, from Proto-Germanic *tīmô (“time”).^[1] Outside English the Proto-Germanic noun lives on in Old Norse tími (“time”) and in a dialectal German zīme (“opportunity”).^[2][3] Orel traces it to a formation in *-men- and connects it with tīd (“time”), the other Old English word for time.^[2] Köbler and Etymonline put it under the root Proto-Indo-European *dā- (“to divide”).^[4][5] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dh₂i-mon-, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to divide”), and sets it beside Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “deity”).^[1] Holthausen compares Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos, “district”) and Old Irish dám (“band, troop”).^[3]

It is a weak masculine noun, with genitive singular and nominative plural ⟨tīman⟩.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Pastoral Care of 890×897, of the right moment for a thing: some faults are to be borne in silence ðonne ðæs ðinges tima ne bið ðæt hit mon sidelice gebetan mæge “when it is not the time for the matter to be mended openly”, rendering the Latin “opportunitas”.^[6][7][8] In the Parker Chronicle, written from about 900, it marks a point in history: On þam timan aras Pelagies gedwyld “at that time the heresy of Pelagius arose”.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller order the uses from the time at which something happens, through the proper or appointed time and the phrase tō tīman “in good time”, to a period of time, a person's lifetime (swā lange swā his tȳma sȳ “as long as he lives”) and a season of the year.^[8] Clark Hall and Sweet add an age of the world and, in Byrhtferth, the length of a syllable as a metrical unit.^[10][11] In glosses it renders Latin tempus and hora.^[8][4] The word is common in prose and rare in verse: the poetic record has it only in The Phoenix and Judgement Day II.^[7] Its partner tīd covered much of the same ground; in one passage of the Boethius the Cotton manuscript has tīdum where the other text reads tīmum.^[8]

It lived on as Middle English tyme, now English time.^[1][5]

Timeline

• 890×897 – ðæs ðinges tima “the right time for the matter” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[6][7]
• s. ix/x – On þam timan “at that time” in the Parker Chronicle.^[9][7]
• s. x² – in The Phoenix in the Exeter Book, of the season when the fruits of the earth are brought home.^[12][8]
• s. x ex. – a span of time in Ælfric's Catholic Homilies I: his tima ne bið na langsum “his time will not be long”.^[13][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. a time at which something happens; the proper or appointed time, an opportunity.^[8][10]
2. a period of time; a person's lifetime.^[8][10]
3. a season of the year.^[8][11]
4. an age of the world, an era.^[11][1]
5. the length of a syllable, a metrical quantity.^[11][10]

Word family

• ǣfentīma
• dæġtīma
• lenctentīma
• nōntīma
• sǣdtīma
• underntīma
• ġetīmian
• tīmlīċe

Descendants

• Middle English tyme (→ English time; Middle Scots tyme)^[1]

Related words

• tīd

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 408
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 348
4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tīma
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e 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 Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 986
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. 83
10. ^ a b c d Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 341
11. ^ a b c d Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 194
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. 223
13. ^ 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. 407