to

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English to, also te,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tō (“to, towards”), also te,^[4][5][6][2] from Proto-West Germanic *tō,^[4][7][6] and is cognate with Old Frisian tō, Old Saxon tō, Dutch toe, Old High German zuo and German zu.^[4][5][8][9] In Old Norse the equivalent was til, the source of till, and in Gothic 𐌳𐌿 (du).^[3][4][10] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin dōnec (“as long as, while”) and quandō (“when”), Ancient Greek -δε (-de, “towards”) (as in οἴκαδε (oíkade, “homewards”)), Old Irish do, Lithuanian da- and Russian до (do, “to, as far as”),^{[5][4][9][6][7]} from a Proto-Indo-European *do- (“to, toward, upward”) that Etymonline derives from the demonstrative *de-.^[4][9][5] Already in prehistoric Old English the preposition and the adverb had the same form; the adverb kept its stress and came to be written too, while the preposition, usually unstressed, kept the weak form.^[3][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the word meant in the direction of, as far as a place, state or goal, and also for the purpose of, furthermore and until;^[4][5] Barnhart's first record is in Beowulf, about 725.^[5] The OED's earliest quotations, from the Old English translations of Orosius and Bede, show motion towards a place and direction.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old English had, beside the plain infinitive in -an, a dative form in -anne or -enne that always followed tō in its ordinary sense of motion, direction or purpose, as in "he came to help (to the help of) his friends".^[5] The meaning of the preposition weakened until it became a mere link between an infinitive and a preceding verb, adjective or noun, and the loss of inflectional endings in early Middle English made it the usual mark of the infinitive;^[5][4] Hoad calls it a sign of the infinitive "without meaning".^[6] Johnson (1755) described it as a particle between two verbs that marks the second as the object of the first.^[11] The use as a conjunction, "until", is found by late Old English,^[4] and in Middle English the adverb was common in verb combinations that render Latin prefixes such as ad-, con- and ex-.^[4][12] The adverb survives in to and fro and shut to.^[6] Before a vowel the word was often reduced to t' in older writing (t'enjoy),^[3] and in dialect it appears as ta, tae, ti or tu.^[3][13] The old sense "at, in a place" (to home) is now only dialectal and colloquial American.^[3] The question what's it to you? is recorded from 1819.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – in the direction of; as far as; for the purpose of.^[5][4]
• late Old English – conjunction, until.^[4]
• Middle English – the sign of the infinitive.^[4][5]
• before 1400 – in figurative expressions of direction or inclination.^[3]
• 1819 – what's it to you?^[4]

Meanings

Preposition

1. In the direction of and reaching; towards: She walked to the harbour.^[14][2][3]
2. Marking the indirect object of a verb: He sent a postcard to his aunt.^[14]
3. Marking the infinitive of a verb: They wanted to leave early.^[14][5]
4. As far as; until: The office is open from nine to five.^[14][3]
5. Expressing equality or a ratio: twelve inches to the foot.^[14]
6. Against; into contact with: She pressed her ear to the door.^[14][2]
7. Before the hour of: ten to six.^[14]

Adverb

1. Into a closed or almost closed position: Pull the door to.^[2][5][6]
2. to and fro: back and forth.^[2][6]

Word family

• lean-to
• hand-to-mouth
• hitherto
• how-to
• onto
• talking-to
• thereto
• thitherto

Related words

• too
• till

Usage notes

A separate adjective to, one, a shortened form of tone, was used in Middle English in phrases such as the to ... the tother, the one ... the other, and survives only in dialect.^[15][3][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press