Etymologically
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until

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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
  • 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