until

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ənˈtɪl/, /ʌnˈtɪl/^[1]

Etymology

It is a Middle English compound, from Middle English un- (“as far as, up to”) + til (“till”),^[2][3][4] the first element being borrowed from Old Norse *und (“as far as, up to”),^[3][5][6] preserved in unz “until”, from und es “till that”,^[6][7] from Proto-Germanic *und-,^[3] which is related to Old English oþ (“up to, as far as”), Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌳 (und, “unto, until”) and Old Saxon und.^[2][3][8] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *ant- (“front, forehead”), with derivatives meaning “in front of, before”.^[3][9][10] The second element is till, itself from Scandinavian.^[4][11] The two syllables thus originally meant the same thing.^[2][3][5] Klein, Skeat and Weekley explain it as unto with the northern and Scandinavian til substituted for to.^[12][11][13] Swedish intill and Danish indtil are similar formations.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Onward to and into, as far as (of places and persons; about 1200, in the Ormulum).^[10][3][14]

Semantic evolution

At first until was used of places and persons as well as of time, meaning “to, unto” and “up to, as far as”;^[3][14] these senses survive only in Scottish and northern English.^[6][15] The sense “continually, up to the time of” dates from the early 14th century,^[3] and the conjunction “up to the time that” from about 1300.^[2][3][16] In negative sentences until came to mean “before”, as in not until Friday.^[4][17] Johnson (1755) gave the senses “to the time that” and “to the place that”, and noted that its use for places had become obsolete.^[18] German bis is a similar compound, of Old High German bī “by” and zuo “to”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – untill, to, as far as, in the Ormulum.^[10][14]
• c. 1300 – as a conjunction.^[2][3]
• early 14th century – up to the time of.^[3]

Modern meaning

Preposition

1. Up to the time of: we danced until dawn.
2. Before (a specified time), after a negative: can't leave until Friday.
3. (Scotland) To, unto.

Conjunction

1. Up to the time that: we walked until it got dark.
2. Before, after a negative: you cannot leave until your work is finished.
3. To the point or extent that: talked until I was hoarse.

Word family

• 'til

Related words

• till
• unto
• end
• ante-

Usage notes

Until and till are generally interchangeable, but till is usually considered more informal, and until is preferred at the beginning of a sentence.^[4][5][19] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that till is actually the older word, until having been formed from it; the 18th-century spelling till, as though it were short for until, is now nonstandard, and til is etymologically incorrect.^[4][17]

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 Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
10. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins