tardy

Etymology

It first appeared as inherited from Middle English tardive, also tardif and tardyve,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French tardif (“slow, late”), feminine tardive,^[5][4][6] with the ending later reduced to -y^[5] under the influence of the adjective suffix -y.^[7] The French adjective, recorded from the 12th century, is from Vulgar Latin *tardīvus,^[5][3][2] from Latin tardus (“slow, sluggish; late; dull”),^[3][4] which also gave Spanish tardío and Italian tardivo.^[5] Etymonline calls the Latin adjective a word of unknown origin and reports that de Vaan gives it no etymology,^[3] Barnhart and Klein call it uncertain,^[4][8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged thinks it probably akin to Ancient Greek τέρην (terēn, “soft, tender”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Slow in motion or action: 1483, in Caxton's translation of The Golden Legend,^[5][4] still in the form tardyve.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that in Old French Tardif was also the name of the snail in the Roman de Renart.^[3] In the 16th and 17th centuries the English adjective had a sense now lost: to take someone tardy, from 1530 in Palsgrave, was to overtake or surprise them, and by 1591 "tardy" alone could mean caught in a fault.^[5][4] The modern main sense, not happening until after the proper time, appears in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667).^[5][4][3] Johnson (1755) ranks "dilatory; late" after "slow" and "sluggish".^[9] American use of the word for lateness to a meeting or class goes back to 1638, in the Archives of Maryland,^[5] and in 1912 Thornton observed that the word, though rare in English prose, was constantly used in the US and Canada of lateness at school.^[3] From that use came the noun, an instance of being late for class, dated 1960.^[7] Another noun, in the accounts of a Chester trade company from 1679, meant a fine for being late.^[10] The form in -ive was borrowed again in 1905 as tardive.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1483 – slow in motion or action.^[5][4][3]
• 1530 – to take someone tardy, to overtake or surprise them (obsolete by 1690).^[5][4]
• 1586 – as an adverb, behind time.^[5]
• 1591 – caught in a fault (obsolete by 1706).^[5]
• before 1616 – verb, to delay or keep back, in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.^[5]
• 1638 – late for a meeting, class or appointment, in American use.^[5]
• 1667 – happening after the proper or expected time.^[5][4]
• 1679 – noun, a fine for being late, in Chester.^[10]
• 1960 – noun, an instance of being late for class.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening or arriving after the expected or proper time; late: a tardy apology.^[2][7][11]
2. (chiefly North American) Late for a class, a meeting or an appointment: Two pupils were tardy this morning.^[5][12]
3. Moving or progressing slowly; sluggish.^[2][7][11]

Adverb

1. (archaic) Late; slowly.^[7][5][12]

Noun

1. An instance of being late, as for a class.^[7]

Verb

1. (rare) To delay or keep something back.^[5][12]

Word family

• tardily
• tardiness

Related words

• tardive
• retard
• bustard

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press