past

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pɑːst/, US /pæst/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English past, a variant of passed, the past participle of passen (“to go by”),^[2][3][4] the source of pass.^[2][5] Hoad explains that it grew out of perfect forms made with “to be”, as in “the daies ben passed”.^[6] French passé and Italian passato were formed in the same way.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gone by, ended, over: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3] The form passed is used about 1380 in Chaucer's Boece.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The preposition, “beyond in time or place”, dates from about 1300,^[2] from constructions such as “the day is passed prime”,^[6] and the adverb, as in go past, from 1546^[7] or, according to Hoad, the 19th century.^[6] “Gone by, belonging to an earlier time” is from the mid-14th century.^[2] The grammatical sense appears in Palsgrave in 1530;^[3] past tense is from the 1650s and past participle by 1775.^[2] The noun, “the time gone by”, is recorded before 1500^[3] or about 1500,^[2] and “a person's earlier life”, often a shameful one, by 1836.^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – preposition.^[2]
• before 1325 – gone by (Cursor Mundi).^[3]
• before 1500 – noun, the time gone by.^[3]
• 1530 – grammatical sense (Palsgrave).^[3]
• 1546 – adverb.^[7]
• 1650s – past tense.^[2]
• 1775 – past participle.^[2]
• 1836 – a person's past.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Gone by; over; no longer current.
2. Belonging to an earlier time; bygone.
3. Just gone by: the past week.
4. Having formerly held an office: a past president.
5. (grammar) Of a tense expressing an earlier action or state.

Noun

1. The time before the present.
2. A person's earlier life, especially one kept secret.
3. (grammar) The past tense, or a verb in it.

Preposition

1. Beyond in time; after: half past six.
2. Beyond in position or reach: past hope.

Adverb

1. So as to go by: walk past.

Word family

• pastless
• pastness
• past participle
• past perfect
• past progressive
• past tense

Related words

• flypast
• past master
• past mistress
• fly-past
• march-past
• pass
• passé
• passage
• bygone

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster